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OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 



BY 

LAWRENCE PERRY 



ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1918 



•It 9 



COPTBIGHT, 1918, BY 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Published September, 1918 



OCT -4 1918 




j.60 

;5U6046 



3 



THIS BOOK 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO THE 

HON. JOSEPHUS DANIELS 

A NEWSPAPER MAN WHO BROUGHT TO HIS TA8K AS SECRETARY OF THE 
NAVY THOSE GREAT QUALITIES OF MIND AND CHARACTER WHICH FITTED 
HIM TO MEET WITH SUCH SIGNAL SUCCESS THE IMMENSE PROBLEMS 
WHICH THE WAR IMPOSED UPON HIS OFFICE. TO HIS FAR-SEEING VISION, 
HIS BREADTH OF VIEW, HIS FREEDOM FROM ALL BIAS, HIS JUDGMENT OF 
MEN AND OF AFFAIRS, AND TO THE STERN COURAGE OF HIS CONVICTIONS 
ARE DUE TO-DAY THE MAINTENANCE OF THOSE HIGH TRADITIONS OF THE 
UNITED STATES NAVY OF WHICH AMERICANS HAVE EVER BEEN PROUD 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

FOREWORD 1 



CHAPTER I 

FIRST EXPERIENCE OF OUR NAVY WITH THE GERMAN U-BOAT 
— ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN HANS ROSE AND THE U-53 AT 

NEWPORT EXPERIENCES OF THE GERMAN SAILORS IN 

AN AMERICAN PORT — DESTRUCTION OF MERCHANTMAN 
BY U-53 OFF NANTUCKET — OUR DESTROYERS TO THE 

RESCUE — SCENES IN NEWPORT — GERMAN REJOICING 

THE NAVY PREPARES FOR WAR 26 



CHAPTER n 

OUR NAVY ARMS AMERICAN MERCHANT VESSELS — DEATH 
OF OUR FIRST BLUEJACKET ON SERVICE IN THE WAR 
ZONE — VICE-ADMIRAL SIMS — WE TAKE OVER PATROL OF 
WATERS OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE — THE NAVAL ADVI- 
SORY BOARD OF INVENTIONS — WORK OF THIS BODY — 
OUR BATTLESHIPS THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD — WIDE- 
SPREAD OPERATIONS 42 

CHAPTER III 

FIRST HOSTILE CONTACT BETWEEN THE NAVY AND THE 
GERMANS — ARMED GUARDS ON MERCHANT VESSELS — 
"CAMPANA" FIRST TO SAIL — DANIELS REFUSES OFFER OF 
MONEY AWARDS TO MEN WHO SINK SUBMARINES — "MON- 
GOLIA" SHOWS GERMANY HOW THE YANKEE SAILORMAN 
BITES — FIGHT OF THE "siLVERSHELL" — HEROISM OF 
GUNNERS ON MERCHANT SHIPS — SINKING OF THE "AN- 
TILLES" — EXPERIENCES OF VOYAGERS 59 

vii 



viii CONTENTS 



CHAPTER IV 

PAGB 

DESTROYERS ON GUARD — PREPARATIONS OF FLOTILLA TO 
CROSS THE OCEAN — MEETING THE " ADRIATIC" — FLO- 
TILLA ARRIVES IN QUEENSTOWN — RECEPTION BY BRITISH 
COMMANDER AND POPULACE — "WE ARE READY NOW, 

SIR" ARRIVAL OF THE FAMOUS CAPTAIN EVANS ON THE 

AMERICAN FLAG-SHIP OUR NAVY A WARM-WEATHER 

NAVY — LOSS OF THE " VACUUM" 79 

CHAPTER V 

BRITISH AND AMERICAN DESTROYERS OPERATING HAND IN 
HAND — ARRIVAL OF NAVAL COLLIER " JUPITER " — SUC- 
CESSFUL TRIP OF TRANSPORTS BEARING UNITED STATES 
SOLDIERS CONVOYED BY NAVAL VESSELS — ATTACK ON 
TRANSPORTS WARDED OFF BY DESTROYERS — SECRETARY 
BAKER THANKS SECRETARY DANIELS — VISIT TO OUR 
DESTROYER BASE — ATTITUDE OF OFFICERS TOWARD MEN 

GENESIS OF THE SUBMARINE — THE CONFEDERATE 

SUBMARINE "hUNLEY" 96 



CHAPTER VI 

ON A GERMAN SUBMARINE — FIGHT WITH A DESTROYER 

PERISCOPE HIT — RECORD OF THE SUBMARINE IN THIS 
WAR — DAWNING FAILURE OF THE UNDERSEA BOAT — 
FIGURES ISSUED BY THE BRITISH ADMIRALTY — PROOF 
OF DECLINE — OUR NAVY'S PART IN THIS ACHIEVEMENT . 117 



CHAPTER Vn 



HOW THE SUBMARINE IS BEING FOUGHT — DESTROYERS THE 
GREAT MENACE — BUT NETS, TOO, HAVE PLAYED THEIR 
PART — MANY OTHER DEVICES — GERMAN OFFICERS TELL 
OF EXPERIENCE ON A SUBMARINE CAUGHT IN A NET — 
CHASERS PLAY THEIR PART — THE DEPTH-BOMB — TRAWLER 
TRICKS — A CAMOUFLAGED SCHOONER WHICH TURNED OUT 

TO BE A TARTAR — AIRPLANES GERMAN SUBMARINE 

MEN IN PLAYFUL MOOD 135 



CONTENTS ix 



CHAPTER VIII 

PACE 

perils and triumphs of submarine-hunting — the loss 
of our first war-ship, the converted gunboat "al- 
cedo" — bravery of crew — "cassin" struck by tor- 
pedo but remains in the fight — loss of the " jacob 
Jones' ' — sinking of the "san diego" — destroyers 
"nicholson" and " fanning" capture a submarine 
which sinks — crew of germans brought into port 
— the policy of silence in regard to submarine 

SINKINGS 156 

CHAPTER IX 

OUR BATTLESHIP FLEET — GREAT WORKSHOP OF WAR 

PREPARATIONS FOR FOREIGN SERVICE — ON A BATTLE- 
SHIP DURING A SUBMARINE ATTACK — THE WIRELESS 
THAT WENT WRONG — THE TORPEDO THAT MISSED — AT- 
TACK ON SUBMARINE BASES OF DOUBTFUL EXPEDIENCY — 
WHEN THE GERMAN FLEET COMES OUT — ESTABLISHMENT 
OF STATION IN THE AZORES 181 



CHAPTER X 

THE GREAT ATLANTIC FERRY COMPANY, INCORPORATED, 
BUT UNLIMITED — FEAT OF THE NAVY IN REPAIRING THE 
STEAMSHIPS BELONGING TO GERMAN LINES WHICH WERE 
INTERNED AT BEGINNING OF WAR IN 1914 — WELDING 
AND PATCHING — TRIUMPH OF OUR NAVY WITH THE "VA- 

TERLAND" HER CONDITION — KNOTS ADDED TO HER 

SPEED — DAMAGE TO MOTIVE POWER AND HOW IT WAS 
REMEDIED — FAMOUS GERMAN LINERS BROUGHT UNDER 
OUR FLAG 198 



CHAPTER XI 

CAMOUFLAGE — AMERICAN SYSTEM OF LOW VISIBILITY AND 
THE BRITISH DAZZLE SYSTEM — AMERICANS WORKED OUT 
PRINCIPLES OF COLOR IN LIGHT AND COLOR IN PIGMENT 
— BRITISH SOUGHT MERELY TO CONFUSE THE EYE — 
BRITISH SYSTEM APPLIED TO SOME OF OUR TRANSPORTS 217 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER XII 



PAGE 



THE NAVAL FLYING CORPS — WHAT THE NAVY DEPARTMENT 
HAS ACCOMPLISHED AND IS ACCOMPLISHING IN THE WAY 
OF AIR-FIGHTING — EXPERIENCE OF A NAVAL ENSIGN 
ADRIFT IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL — SEAPLANES AND 
FLYING BOATS — SCHOOLS OF INSTRUCTION — INSTANCES 
OF HEROISM 224 

CHAPTER XIII 

ORGANIZATION OF THE NAVAL RESERVE CLASSES TAKING 

OVER OF YACHTS FOR NAVAL SERVICE — WORK AMONG 
THE RESERVES STATIONED AT VARIOUS NAVAL CENTRES 
— WALTER CAMP'S ACHIEVEMENT 23d 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS — FIRST MILITARY 
BRANCH OF THE NATIONAL SERVICE TO BE SANCTIONED 

BY CONGRESS — LEAVING FOR THE WAR SERVICE OF THE 

MARINES IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE GLOBE — DETAILS 
OF EXPANSION OF CORPS — THEIR PRESENT SERVICE ALL 
OVER THE WORLD 260 

CHAPTER XV 

SCOPE OF THE NAVY'S WORK IN VARIOUS PARTICULARS — 
FOOD — FUEL — NAVAL CONSULTING BOARD — PROJECTILE 

FACTORY — EXPENDITURES — INCREASE OF PERSONNEL 

CONCLUSION 272 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Atlantic Fleet steaming in line of bearing .... Frontispiece 

FACING PAGE 

Portraits of Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, 
Rear- Admiral Leigh C. Palmer, Vice- Admiral William 
S. Sims, Admiral Henry T. Mayo, Rear-Admiral Albert 
Gleaves, Admiral William S. Benson 22 

Position of ships in a convoy 100 

A U. S. submarine at full speed on the surface of the water 130 

A submarine-chaser 146 *- 

A torpedo-destroyer 14G 

Repairing a damaged cylinder of a German ship for fed- 
eral service 208 

Scene at an aviation station somewhere in America, show- 
ing fifteen seaplanes on beach departing and arriv- 
ing 234 ' 

Captain's inspection at Naval Training Station, New- 
port, R. 1 246 * 

American Marines who took part in the Marne offensive 

on parade in Paris, July 4, 1918 268 



OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

FOREWORD 

GENTLY rolling and heaving on the surge 
of a summer sea lay a mighty fleet of 
war-vessels. There were the capital ships of 
the Atlantic Fleet, grim dreadnoughts with 
their superimposed turrets, their bristling broad- 
sides, their basket-masts — veritable islands of 
steel. There were colliers, hospital-ships, de- 
stroyers, patrol-vessels — in all, a tremendous 
demonstration of our sea power. Launches 
were dashing hither and thither across the rest- 
less blue waters, signal-flags were flashing from 
mast and stay and the wind, catching the sepia 
reek from many a funnel, whipped it across a 
league of sea. 

On the deck of the largest battleship were 
gathered the officers of the fleet not only, but 
nearly every officer on active duty in home 
waters. All eyes were turned shoreward and 



2 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

presently as a sharp succession of shots rang 
out a sleek, narrow craft with gracefully turned 
bow came out from the horizon and advanced 
swiftly toward the flag-ship. It was the Presi- 
dent's yacht, the Mayflower, with the President 
of the United States on board. As the yacht 
swung to a launch was dropped overside, the 
gangway lowered and Woodrow Wilson stepped 
down to the little craft, bobbing on the waves. 
There was no salute, no pomp, no official cir- 
cumstance, nor anything in the way of cere- 
mony. The President did not want that. 

What he did want was to meet the officers 
of our navy and give them a heart-to-heart 
talk. He did just that. At the time it was 
early summer in 1917. In the preceding April 
a declaration that Germany had been waging 
war upon the United States had been made in 
Congress; war resolutions had been passed 
and signed by the President. This on April 6. 
On April 7 the Navy Department had put into 
effect plans that had already been formulated. 
Much had been done when the President boarded 
the flag-ship of the Atlantic Fleet that early 
summer afternoon. Some of our destroyers 



FOREWORD 3 

were already at work in foreign waters, but 
the bulk of our fighting force was at home, pre- 
paring for conflict. And it was this time that 
the President chose to meet those upon whom 
the nation relied to check the submarine and 
to protect our shores against the evil devices 
of the enemy. 

"He went," wrote a narrator of this historic 
function, "directly to the business in hand. 
And the business in hand was telling the officers 
of the navy of the United States that the sub- 
marine had to be beaten and that they had 
to do it. He talked — well, it must still remain 
a secret, but if you have ever heard a football 
coach talk to his team between the halves; if 
you ever heard a captain tell his men what he 
expected of them as they stripped for action; 
if you ever knew what the fighting spirit of 
Woodrow Wilson really is when it is on fire — 
then you can visualize the whole scene. He 
wanted not merely as good a record from our 
navy as other navies had, he wanted a better 
record. He wanted action, not merely from 
the gold-braided admirals, but from the en- 
signs, too; and he wanted every mind turned 



4 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

to the solution of the submarine question, and 
regardless of rank and distinction he wanted 
all to work and fight for the common object — 
victory. 

"Somebody suggested to the President later 
that the speech be published. He declined. 
Most of it wasn't said to be published. It was 
a direct talk from the commander-in-chief of 
the navy to his men. It was inspiration itself. 
The officers cheered and went away across the 
seas. And there they have been in action ever 
since, giving an account of themselves that has 
already won the admiration of their allies and 
the involuntary respect of their foes." 

It was under such auspices as these that the 
United States Navy went forth to war. No 
one ever doubted the spirit of our fighters of 
the sea. Through all the years, from the time 
when John Paul Jones bearded enemy ships 
in their own waters, when Old Ironsides belched 
forth her well-directed broadsides in many a 
victorious encounter; when Decatur showed 
the pirates of Tripoli that they had a new power 
with which to deal; when Farragut damned 
the torpedoes in Mobile Bay, and Dewey did 



FOREWORD 5 

likewise in Manila Bay; when Sampson and 
Schley triumphed at Santiago, and Hobson 
accepted the seemingly fatal chance under the 
guns of Morro Castle — through all the years, 
I say, and through all that * they have brought 
in the way of armed strife, the nation never 
for one moment has ever doubted the United 
States Navy. 

And neither did Woodrow Wilson doubt. 
He knew his men. But he wanted to look them 
all in the eye and tell them that he knew their 
mettle, knew what they could do, and held 
no thought of their failure. Every fighting 
man fights the better for an incident of this 
sort. 

Week by week since that time there has come 
to us from out the grim North Sea, from the 
Mediterranean and the broad Atlantic abun- 
dant testimony, many a story of individual 
and collective heroism, of ships that have waged 
gallant fights, of Americans who have lived 
gallantly, who have died gloriously — and above 
all there has come to us the gratifying record 
of reduced submarine losses, as to which there 
is abundant testimony — notably from the great 



6 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

maritime and naval power of the world — Great 
Britain — that our navy has played a vital part 
in the diminution of the undersea terror. 

Less than a year after President Wilson 
boarded the flag-ship of the Atlantic Fleet our 
navy had more than 150 naval vessels — battle- 
ships, cruisers, submarines and tenders, gun- 
boats, coast-guard cutters, converted yachts, 
tugs, and numerous vessels of other types for 
special purposes — in European waters. Serv- 
ing on these vessels were nearly 40,000 men, 
more than half the strength of our navy before 
we entered the war — and this number did not 
include the personnel of troop-ships, supply- 
vessels, armed guards for merchantmen, signal- 
men, wireless operators and the like, who go 
into the war zone on recurrent trips. 

Submarines have been fought and sunk or 
captured — how many, a wise naval policy bids 
absolute silence. Our antisubmarine activities 
now cover in war areas alone over 1,000,000 
square miles of sea. In a six-months period 
one detachment of destroyers steamed over 
1,000,000 of miles in the war zone, attacked 
81 submarines, escorted 717 single vessels, par- 



FOREWORD 7 

ticipated in 86 convoys, and spent one hundred 
and fifty days at sea. 

There have been mistakes, of course; there 
have been delays which have tried the patience 
not only of the country, but of the Navy De- 
partment. But they were inevitable under the 
high pressure of affairs as they suddenly set 
in when we went to war. But in looking back 
over the year and a half of conflict, considering 
the hundreds of thousands of soldiers that our 
navy has conducted in safety across the in- 
fested Atlantic, and the feats which our fight- 
ers have performed in action, in stormy seas, 
in rescue work and in the long, weary grind 
of daily routine, no American has cause for 
aught but pride in the work our navy has 
done. 

There has been more than a sixfold increase 
in naval man power and about a fourfold in- 
crease in the number of ships in service. When 
present plans have been carried out — and all 
projects are proceeding swiftly — the United 
States will probably rank second to Britain 
among naval Powers of the world. Training 
facilities have increased on a stupendous scale; 



8 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

we have now various specialized schools for 
seamen and officers; our industrial yards have 
grown beyond dreams and the production of 
ordnance and munitions proceeds on a vast 
scale, while in other directions things have been 
accomplished by the Navy Department which 
will not be known until the war is over and 
the records are open for all to read. 

But in the meantime history has been making 
and facts have been marked which give every 
American pride. Praise from the source of all 
things maritime is praise indeed, and what 
greater commendation — better than anything 
that might be spoken or written— could be 
desired than the action of Admiral Sir David 
Beatty, commander-in-chief of the Grand Fleet, 
who, receiving a report not so many months 
ago that the German High Seas Fleet was out, 
awarded the post of honor in the consolidated 
fleet of British and American war-vessels which 
went forth to meet the Germans to a division 
of American battleships. This chivalrous com- 
pliment on the part of the British commander 
was no doubt designed as a signal act of courtesy, 
but more, it was born of the confidence of a man 



FOREWORD 9 

who has seen our navy, who had had the most 
complete opportunities for studying it and, as 
a consequence, knew what it could do. 

There is nothing of chauvinism in the state- 
ment that, so far as the submarine is concerned, 
our navy has played a most helpful part in 
diminishing its ravages, that our fighting ships 
have aided very materially in the marked 
reduction in sinkings of merchantmen as com- 
pared to the number destroyed in the corre- 
sponding period before we entered the war, 
and in the no less notable increase in the number 
of submarines captured or sunk. These facts 
have not only been made clear by official Navy 
Department statements, but have been at- 
tested to by many British and French Ad- 
miralty and Government authorities and naval 
commanders. 

"You doubtless know," wrote Admiral Sims 
to the Secretary of the Navy some time ago, 
"that all of the Allies here with whom I am 
associated are very much impressed by the 
efforts now being made by the United States 
Navy Department to oppose the submarine 
and protect merchant shipping. I am very 



10 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

glad to report that our forces are more than 
coming up to expectations." 

Admiral Sims was modest. Let us quote 
the message sent by Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly, 
commander-in-chief of the British naval forces 
on the Irish coast, on the anniversary of the 
arrival of our first destroyer flotilla at Queens- 
town: 

"On the anniversary of the arrival of the 
first United States men-of-war at Queenstown 
I wish to express my deep gratitude to the 
United States officers and ratings for the skill, 
energy, and unfailing good nature which they 
all have consistently shown and which quali- 
ties have so materially assisted in the war by 
enabling ships of the Allied Powers to cross 
the ocean in comparative freedom. To com- 
mand you is an honor, to work with you is a 
pleasure, to know you is to know the best traits 
of the Anglo-Saxon race." 

And to Secretary Daniels, Sir Eric Geddes, 
first lord of the British Admiralty, wrote in 
part: 

"As you know, we all of us here have great 
admiration for your officers and men and for 



FOREWORD 11 

the splendid help they are giving in European 
waters. Further, we find Admiral Sims in- 
valuable in counsel and in co-operation." 

American naval aid has been of the greatest 
help to the British Fleet, wrote Archibald 
Hurd, the naval expert, in the Daily Telegraph, 
London. 

"When the war is over," he said, "the na- 
tion will form some conception of the extent 
of the debt which we owe the American Navy 
tor the manner in which it has co-operated, 
not only in connection with the convoy system, 
but in fighting the submarines. If the naval 
position is improving to-day, as it is, it is due 
to the fact that the British and American fleets 
are working in closest accord, supported by 
an immense body of skilled workers on both 
sides of the Atlantic, who are turning out de- 
stroyers and other crafts for dealing with the 
submarines as well as mines and bombs. The 
Germans can have a battle whenever they want 
it. The strength of the Grand Fleet has been 
well maintained. Some of the finest battle- 
ships of the United States Navy are now asso- 
ciated with it. They are not only splendid 



12 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

fighting-ships, but they are well officered and 
manned." 

Here is what Lord Reading, the British Am- 
bassador to the United States said in the course 
of an address at the Yale 1918 Commence- 
ment: 

"Let me say to you on behalf of the British 
people what a debt of gratitude we owe to your 
navy for its co-operation with us. There is 
no finer spectacle to be seen at present than 
that complete and cordial co-operation which 
is existing between your fleet and ours. They 
work as one. I always think to myself and 
hope that the co-operation of our fleets, of our 
navies, is the harbinger of what is to come in 
the future when the war is over, of that which 
will still continue then. Magnificent is their 
work, and I glory always in the thought that 
an American admiral has taken charge of the 
British Fleet and the British policy, and that 
when the plans are formed for an attack that 
American admiral is given the place of honor 
in our fleet, because we feel that it is his due 
at this moment." 

And finally, there is the testimony of Ad- 



FOREWORD 13 

miral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss, first sea lord of 
the British, concerning our effective aid, testi- 
mony, by the way, which enlightens us to some 
extent upon British and American methods of 
co-operation. 

"On the broad lines of strategic policy," he 
said, "complete unanimity exists. Admiral 
Benson and Admiral Mayo have both visited 
us and studied our naval plans. No officers 
could have exhibited keener appreciation of 
the naval situation. I find it difficult to ex- 
press the gratitude of the British service to 
these officers and to Admiral Sims for the sup- 
port they have given us. I am not exaggerat- 
ing, or camouflaging, to borrow a word of the 
moment. Our relations could not be more 
cordial. The day-to-day procedure is of the 
simplest. Every morning I hold conference 
with the principal officers of the naval staff, 
and Admiral Sims is present as the representa- 
tive of the United States Fleet, joining freely 
in the discussion of the various subjects which 
arise. I need not add that I keenly appreciate 
his help. At sea the same spirit of cordial co- 
operation exists — extremely cordial. I should 



14 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

like to say we have, fortunately, a common 
language and common traditions, which have 
done much to assist us in working together. 

"The American officers and men are first- 
rate. It is impossible to pay too high a tribute 
to the manner in which they settled down to 
this job of submarine hunting, and to the in- 
telligence, resource, and courage which they 
have exhibited. They came on the scene at 
the opportune moment. Our men had been 
in the mill for many weary months. Possibly 
the American people, so far removed from the 
main theatre of the war, can hardly appreciate 
what it meant when these American officers 
and men crossed the Atlantic. They have been 
splendid, simply splendid. I have seen a number 
of the destroyers and conversed with a large 
number of officers. I also have had many re- 
ports and am not speaking of the aid the United 
States has rendered without full knowledge. 

"Not only are the vessels well constructed 
and the officers and men thoroughly competent, 
but the organization is admirable. It was no 
slight matter for so many ships to come 3,000 
miles across the Atlantic to fight in European 



FOREWORD 15 

waters. The decision raised several complicated 
problems in connection with supplies, but those 
problems have been surmounted with success. 
There has never been anything like it before 
in the history of naval warfare, and the develop- 
ment of the steam-engine has rendered such 
co-operation more difficult than ever before, 
because the modern man-of-war is dependent 
on a constant stream of supplies of fuel, stores, 
food, and other things, and is need of frequent 

repairs." 

In addition to doing signally effective work 
in hunting down the submarine, and in pro- 
tecting ocean commerce, our war-ships have 
relieved England and France of the necessity 
of looking out for raiders and submarines in 
South Atlantic waters; we have sent to the 
Grand Fleet, among other craft, a squadron 
of dreadnoughts and superdreadnoughts whose 
aggregate gun-power will tell whenever the 
German sea-fighters decide to risk battle in the 
North Sea; war-ships are convoying transports 
laden with thousands of men— more than a mil- 
lion and a half fighting men will be on French 
and English soil before these words are read— 



16 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

escorting ocean liners and convoying merchant 
vessels, while in divers other ways the navy of 
this country is playing its dominant part in 
the fight against German ruthlessness. 

When the Emergency Fleet Corporation an- 
nounced its programme of building ships the 
Navy Department at once began its prepara- 
tions for providing armed guards for these 
vessels as soon as they were commissioned for 
transatlantic service. Thousands of men were 
placed in training for this purpose and detailed 
instructions were prepared and issued to the 
Shipping Board and to all ship-building com- 
panies to enable them to prepare their vessels 
while building with gun-emplacements, armed- 
guard quarters, and the like, so that when the 
vessels were completed there would be as little 
delay as possible in furnishing them. In all 
details relating to the protection of these mer- 
chant vessels the navy has played a most vital 
part and not least of the laurels accruing to 
this department of the government war service 
for work in the present struggle have been 
those won by naval gun crews on cargo-laden 
ships. 



FOREWORD 17 

The administrative work in connection with 
vessels of this class is a not inconsiderable task 
of itself. The romance of the armed merchant- 
men affords material for many a vivid page, 
and when in its proper place in this volume it 
is set forth somewhat in detail the reader will 
grasp — if he has not already done so through 
perusal of the daily press — the fact that all the 
glory of naval service in this war has not re- 
sided within the turrets of the dreadnought 
nor on the deck of destroyer or patrol -vessel. 

The navy organized and has operated the 
large transport service required to take our 
soldiers overseas. At this writing not a single 
transport has been lost on the way to France, 
and but three have been sunk returning. Trans- 
ports bound for France have been attacked by 
submarines time and again, and, in fact, our 
first transport convoy was unsuccessfully as- 
sailed, as has been the case with other con- 
voys throughout the past twelve months. In 
the case of the Tuscania, sunk by a torpedo 
while eastbound with American soldiers, that 
vessel was under British convoy, a fact which 
implies no discredit upon the British Navy, 



18 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

since it is beyond the powers of human ingenuity 
so to protect the ocean lanes as to warrant as- 
surance that a vessel, however well convoyed, 
shall be totally immune from the lurking sub- 
marine. . Again, it should be remembered, that 
the British have taken about sixty per cent of 
our expeditionary forces across the ocean. 

In the line of expanding ship-building facili- 
ties the Navy Department has in the past year 
carried on vigorously a stupendous policy of 
increased shipyard capacity, which upon com- 
pletion will see this country able to have in 
course of construction on the ways at one time 
sixteen war- vessels of which seven will be battle- 
ships. 

In January, 1917, three months before we 
went to war, the Navy Department's facilities 
for ship-building were: Boston, one auxiliary 
vessel; New York, one battleship; Philadel- 
phia, one auxiliary; Norfolk, one destroyer; 
Charleston, one gunboat; Mare Island, one 
battleship and one destroyer. At the present 
time the Brooklyn Navy Yard has a way for 
the building of dreadnoughts, and one for the 
building of battleships. At Philadelphia two 



FOREWORD 19 

ways are being built for large battleships and 
battle-cruisers. Norfolk, in addition to her 
one way for destroyers, will soon have a way 
for battleships. Charleston will have five 
ways for destroyers. The navy-yard at Puget 
Sound will soon have a way for one battle- 
ship. 

The building plans include not only the con- 
struction of ways, but also machine, electrical, 
structural, forge, and pattern shops in addi- 
tion to foundries, storehouses, railroad- tracks, 
and power-plants. This increase in building 
capacity will enable the government through 
enhanced repair facilities to handle all repair 
and building work for the fleet as well as such 
for the new merchant marine. Three naval 
docks which will be capable of handling the 
largest ships in the world are approaching com- 
pletion while private companies are building 
similar docks under encouragement of the 
government in the shape of annual guarantees 
of dockage. 

An idea of what has been accomplished with 
respect to ship-building is gained through the 
statement of Secretary Daniels, June 2, that 



20 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

his department had established a new world's 
record for rapid ship construction by the launch- 
ing of the torpedo-boat destroyer Ward, at 
the Mare Island Navy Yard, California, seven- 
teen and a half days after the keel was laid. 
The previous record was established shortly 
before that date at Camden, New Jersey, where 
the freighter Tuckahoe was launched twenty- 
seven days and three hours after the laying 
of the keel. 

In 1898, twenty years ago, the first sixteen 
destroyers were authorized for the United States 
Navy. These were less than half the size of 
our present destroyers, and yet their average 
time from the laying of the keels to launching 
was almost exactly two years. During the ten 
years prior to our entrance into the present 
war Congress authorized an average of five or 
six destroyers a year. The records show that 
in the construction of these the average time 
on the ways was almost exactly eleven months, 
the total time of construction being about two 
years. 

The average time on the ways of the numerous 
destroyers launched in 1917-18, is but little 



FOREWORD 21 

over five months, this being somewhat less 
than half the average time under peace condi- 
tions. As many as 400 men were employed in 
work on the Ward, and in preparing to estab- 
lish the record as much structural work as pos- 
sible was prepared in advance, ready for erec- 
tion and assembling before the keel was laid. 
While this achievement will no doubt remain 
unmatched for some time, it will none the less 
stand significant as marking a condition that 
is general in naval construction throughout 
the country, this applying to battleships and 
other craft as well as to destroyers. 

In short, under the constructive leadership 
of Josephus Daniels, the navy is doing its enor- 
mous bit in a convincing manner. It took the 
personnel of the navy — that is, the commissioned 
personnel — a long time to discover the real 
character and personality of Mr. Daniels. It 
is not too much to say that many of them were 
hostile to his administration. But the war 
proved him for what he was. With adminis- 
trative capacity of his own, sound judgment, 
and a clear brain, he was big enough to kiow 
that there were many things that had better 



22 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

be left to the highly trained technicians under 
his command. 

And so in large measure he delegated many 
actual tasks of administration to the most com- 
petent officers in the navy, officers selected 
for special tasks without fear or favor. Mr. 
Daniels will receive, as he is now receiving, 
credit for their work; but he in turn is earnest 
in his desire so to speak and act, that this credit 
will be duly and properly shared by those en- 
titled thereto. He has disregarded seniority 
and other departmental, not to say political 
factors, in choosing the right men to head the 
various bureaus of the Navy Department and 
the various units of the fleet. 

He has favored the young officer, and to-day 
it is not too much to say that youth holds the 
power in the navy; but, on the other hand, he 
has been quick to recognize and to employ in 
high places the qualities that reside in officers 
who with years of experience, combine endur- 
ing zest and broad points of view. 

In all, Secretary Daniels exemplifies the spirit 
of the American Navy — and the spirit of our 
navy is altogether consonant with our national 




Admiral Henry 
T. Mato. 



Rear-Admiral Albert Gleaves. 



FOREWORD 23 

tradition — to get into the fight and keep fight- 
ing. He has been the sponsor for a naval in- 
crease which sees our active roster increased 
from 56,000 men in April, 1917, to more than 
400,000 at the present time, and our fighting 
ships increased, as already pointed out, four- 
fold. 

And while our vessels and our fighting men 
are playing their part on the high seas the coun- 
sel of our trained technical experts is eagerly 
sought and constantly employed by the ad- 
miralties of the Allied nations. When the naval 
history of this war is given to the world in freest 
detail we shall know just how much our officers 
have had to do with the strategy of operations 
adopted by all the Entente navies. It is not 
violating either ethics or confidence, however, 
to say that our influence in this respect has 
been very potent and that the names of Ad- 
miral William S. Benson, chief of operations; 
Vice-Admiral William S. Sims, Admiral Henry 
T. Mayo, and Rear-Admiral Albert Gleaves 
are already names that are to be reckoned with 
abroad as at home. 

As for incidents reflecting gloriously upon 



24 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

the morale of our officers and men, the navy 
has already its growing share. There is the 
destroyer Cassin struck by a torpedo and se- 
riously crippled, but refusing to return to port 
as long as there appeared to be a chance of en- 
gaging the submarine that had attacked her. 
There is Lieutenant Clarence C. Thomas, com- 
mander of the gun crew on the oil-ship Vacuum. 
When the ship was sunk he cheered his freezing 
men tossing on an icy sea in an open boat far 
from land, until he at length perished, his last 
words those of encouragement. There is Lieu- 
tenant S. F. Kalk, who swam from raft to raft 
encouraging and directing the survivors of the 
destroyer Jacob Jones after a torpedo had sent 
that vessel to the bottom. There are those 
two gunners on the transport Antilles who stood 
serving their gun until the ship sank and carried 
them down. There is the freighter Silver-Shell 
whose gun crew fought and sank the submarine 
that attacked the ship, and the gun crews of 
the Moreni, the Carnpana, and the J. L. Lucken- 
back — indomitable heroes all. There is Osmond 
Kelly Ingram, who saved the Cassin and lost 
his life. There is the glorious page contributed 



FOREWORD 25 

to our naval annals, by the officers and crew 
of the San Diego. History indeed is in the 
making — history that Americans are proud to 
read. 

In all that has been written in this foreword 
the design has been merely to sketch, to out- 
line some of the larger achievements of the 
United States Navy in this war. In chapters 
to come our navy's course from peace into war 
will be followed as closely as the restrictions of 
a wise censorship will permit. 



CHAPTER I 

FIRST EXPERIENCE OF OUR NAVY WITH THE GERMAN 
U-BOAT — ARRIVAL OF CAPTAIN HANS ROSE AND THE 
U-53 AT NEWPORT — EXPERIENCES OF THE GERMAN 
SAILORS IN AN AMERICAN PORT — DESTRUCTION OF 
MERCHANTMEN BY U-53 OFF NANTUCKET — OUR DE- 
STROYERS TO THE RESCUE — SCENES IN NEWPORT — GER- 
MAN REJOICING — THE NAVY PREPARES FOR WAR 

HOW many of us who love the sea and have 
followed it to greater or less extent in the 
way of business or pleasure have in the past 
echoed those famous lines of Rudyard Kipling: 

" 'Good-bye Romance!' the skipper cried. 
He vanished with the coal we burn." 

And how often since the setting in of the 
grim years beginning with August of 1914 have 
we had occasion to appreciate the fact that of 
all the romance of the past ages the like to that 
which has been spread upon the pages of his- 
tory in the past four years was never written 
nor imagined. Week after week there has come 
to us from out the veil of the maritime spaces in- 
cidents dramatic, mysterious, romantic, tragic, 
hideous. 



ROMANCE AT SEA 27 

Great transatlantic greyhounds whose names 
evoke so many memories of holiday jaunts 
across the great ocean slip out of port and are 
seen no more of men. Vessels arrive at the ports 
of the seven seas with tales of wanton murder, 
of hairbreadth escapes. Boat crews drift for 
days at the mercy of the seas and are finally 
rescued or perish man by man. The square- 
rigged ship once more rears its towering masts 
and yards above the funnels of merchant ship- 
ping; schooners brave the deep seas which 
never before dared leave the coastwise zones; 
and the sands of the West Indies have been 
robbed of abandoned hulks to the end that the 
diminishing craft of the seas be replaced. And 
with all there are stories of gallantry, of sea 
rescues, of moving incidents wherein there is 
nothing but good to tell of the human animal. 
Would that it were all so. But it is not. The 
ruthlessness of the German rears itself like a 
sordid shadow against the background of Anglo- 
Saxon and Latin gallantry and heroism— a di- 
minishing shadow, thank God, and thank, also, 
the navy of Great Britain and of the United 
States. 



28 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

For more than two years and a half of sea 
tragedy the men of our navy played the part 
of lookers-on. Closely following the sequence 
of events with the interest of men of science, 
there was a variety of opinion as to the de- 
sirability of our playing a part in the epic 
struggle on the salt water. There were officers 
who considered that we were well out of it; 
there were more who felt that our part in the 
struggle which the Allied nations were waging 
should be borne without delay. But whatever 
existed in the way of opinion there was no lack 
of unanimity in the minute study which our 
commissioned officers gave to the problems in 
naval warfare and related interests which were 
constantly arising in European waters. 

It was not, however, until October of 1916 
that the American Navy came into very close 
relationship with the submarine activities of 
the German Admiralty. The morning of 
October 7 of that year was one of those days 
for which Newport is famous — a tangy breeze 
sweeping over the gorse-clad cliffs and dunes 
that mark the environment of Bateman's Point 
the old yellow light-ship which keeps watch 



VISIT OF U-53 29 

and ward over the Brenton reefs rising and 
falling on a cobalt sea. From out of the sea- 
ward mists there came shortly before ten 
o'clock a low-lying craft which was instantly 
picked out by the men of the light-ship as a 
submarine, an American submarine. There is 
a station for them in Newport Harbor, and 
submersible boats of our navy are to be found 
there at all times. 

But as the men watched they picked up on 
the staff at the stern of the incoming craft the 
Royal German ensign. A German submarine! 
Be assured that enough interest in German 
craft of the sort had been aroused in the two 
years and eight months of war to insure the 
visitor that welcome which is born of intense 
interest. The submarine, the U-53, held over 
toward Beaver Tail and then swung into the 
narrow harbor entrance, finally coming to 
anchor off Goat Island. The commander, Cap- 
tain Hans Rose, went ashore in a skiff and paid 
an official visit first to Rear-Admiral Austin 
M. Knight, commander of the Newport Naval 
District, and then to Rear-Admiral Albert 
Gleaves, chief of our destroyer flotilla. 



30 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

Subsequent testimony of that German com- 
mander was that the American naval officers 
appeared somewhat embarrassed at the visit, 
suggesting men who were confronted by a situa- 
tion which they were not certain how to handle. 
The statement of the German officer had a hu- 
morous sound and may have been humorously 
intended. In any event, Admiral Knight and 
Admiral Gleaves were very polite, and in due 
course paid the Germans the courtesy of a re- 
turn visit. And while the submarine lay in 
the harbor the ' crew came ashore and were 
treated to beer by the American sailors, while 
crowds of curious were admitted aboard the 
submersible and shown about with the most 
open courtesy. 

Captain Rose said he had come to deliver 
a letter to Count von Bernstorff, the German 
Ambassador, but such a mission seemed so 
trivial that rumor as to the real intentions of 
the craft was rife throughout the entire coun- 
try. There were suspicions that she had put 
in for fuel, or ammunition, or supplies. But 
nothing to justify these thoughts occurred. The 
U-53 hung around through the daylight hours, 



KANSAN COMPLAINS 31 

and at sunset, with a farewell salute, put to sea. 

Did our naval officers think this was the last 
of her? Possibly, but probably not. They 
knew enough of the Germans to realize, or to 
suspect, that their minds held little thought 
those days of social amenities and that such 
calls as were made upon neutrals contained 
motives which, while hidden, were none the less 
definite. 

The night brought forth nothing, however, 
and the Navy Department was beginning to 
feel that perhaps after all the U-53 was well 
on her way to Germany, when early the fol- 
lowing morning there came to the radio-station 
at Newport an indignant message from Cap- 
tain Smith of the Hawaiian-American liner 
Kansan. He asked to know why he had been 
stopped and questioned by a German submarine 
which had halted him in the vicinity of the 
Nantucket light-ship at 5.30 o'clock that morn- 
ing. He added that after he had convinced the 
submarine commander as to the nationality of 
his ship, he was permitted to proceed. 

This looked like business, and Newport be- 
came certain of this when shortly after noon 



32 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

came a radio containing advices as to the sink- 
ing of the steamship West Point off Nantucket. 
Then at intervals up to midnight came other 
messages telling of the sinking of other vessels 
until the victims of the undersea craft num- 
bered four British, a Dutch, and a Scandinavian 
vessel, one of them, the Halifax liner Stephano, 
a passenger-vessel, with Americans on board. 
Reports of vessels torpedoed, of open boats 
containing survivors afloat on the sea followed 
one another swiftly until not only Newport 
but the entire country was aroused. 

Admiral Knight and Admiral Gleaves, who 
had been keeping the Navy Department at 
Washington in touch with every phase of the 
situation, beginning with the arrival of the U-53 
the preceding day, lost no time in sending 
destroyers forth to the rescue, while already 
there was the cheering word that the destroyer 
Batch was on the scene and engaged in rescue 
work. 

The departure of the destroyers was a spec- 
tacle that brought thousands of men, women, 
and children of Newport to the points of van- 
tage along the shore or to small craft of all sorts 



DESTROYERS TO RESCUE 33 

in which they kept as close to the destroyers, 
preparing for their seaward flight, as they could. 
It was Sunday, a day when crowds were at 
leisure, but it was also a day when many of 
the officers and crew of the flotilla were on shore- 
leave. They were summoned from all points, 
however, and within a short time after the first 
call for help had been received the Jarvis, with 
Lieutenant L. P. Davis in command, was speed- 
ing to sea at the rate ordered by Admiral 
Gleaves, thirty-one knots an hour. 

Inside half an hour the other destroyers shot 
out to sea at the same speed as the Jarvis while 
the spectators cheered them, and such as were 
in small boats followed until the speeding craft 
had disappeared. There was the Drayton — 
Lieutenant Bagley, who later was to know the 
venom of the German submarine — the Erics- 
son, Lieutenant-Commander W. S. Miller; the 
O'Brien, Lieutenant-Commander C. E. Court- 
ney; the Benham, Lieutenant-Commander J. 
B. Gay; the Cassin, Lieutenant-Commander 
Vernou; the McCall, Lieutenant Stewart; the 
Porter, Lieutenant-Commander W. K. Wort- 
man; the Fanning, Lieutenant Austin; the 



34 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

Paulding, Lieutenant Douglas Howard; the 
Winslow, Lieutenant-Commander Nichols; the 
Alwyn, Lieutenant-Commander John C. Fre- 
mont; the Cushing, Lieutenant Kettinger; the 
Cummings, Lieutenant-Commander G. F. Neal; 
the Conyngham, Lieutenant-Commander A. W. 
Johnson, and the mother ship, Melville, Com- 
mander H. B. Price. 

Soon after the destroyers had passed into 
the Atlantic there came a wireless message 
saying that twenty of the crew of the British 
steamship Strathdean had been taken on board 
the Nantucket light-ship. Admiral Gleaves 
directed the movement of his destroyers from 
the radio-room on the flag-ship. He figured 
that the run was about a hundred miles. There 
was a heavy sea running and a strong south- 
west wind. There was a mist on the ocean. 
It was explained by the naval authorities that 
the destroyers were sent out purely on a mis- 
sion of rescue, and nothing was said as to any 
instructions regarding the enforcement of in- 
ternational law. None the less it was assumed, 
and may now be assumed, that something was 
said to the destroyer commanders with regard 



OUR NEUTRALITY OBSERVED 35 

to the three-mile limit. But as to that we know 
no more to-day than at the time. 

Suffice to say that the destroyers arrived in 
time not only to wander about the ocean seek- 
ing survivors in the light of a beautiful hunter's 
moon, but in time to witness the torpedoing 
of at least two merchantmen; the submarine 
commander, it is said, advising our war-ship 
commanders to move to certain locations so 
as not to be hit by his shells and torpedoes. 

Eventually the destroyer flotilla returned 
with their loads of survivors and with com- 
plete details of the operations of the U-53 and, 
according to belief, of another submarine not 
designated. It appeared that the Germans 
were scrupulous in observing our neutrality, 
that their operations were conducted without 
the three-mile limit, and that opportunities 
were given crews and passengers to leave the 
doomed ships. There was nothing our de- 
stroyer commanders could do. Even the most 
hot-headed commander must have felt the 
steel withes of neutral obligation which held 
him inactive while the submarine plied its deadly 
work. There was. of course, nothing else to 



36 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

do — except to carry on the humanitarian work 
of rescuing victims of the U boat or boats, as 
the case might have been. 

Later, it was given to many of the craft which 
set forth that October afternoon to engage in 
their service to humanity, to cross the seas 
and to meet the submarine where it lurked in 
the Irish Sea, the North Sea, the English 
Channel, and the Mediterranean. One of them, 
the Cassin was later to be struck — but not 
sunk — by a torpedo off the coast of England, 
while the Fanning, in company with the Nichol- 
son, had full opportunity of paying off the score 
which most naval officers felt had been incurred 
when the U-53 and her alleged companion in- 
vaded American waters and sullied them with 
the foul deeds that had so long stained the clean 
seas of Europe. 

German diplomats were enthusiastic over 
the exploits of their craft. "The U-53 and 
other German submarines, if there are others," 
said a member of the German Embassy at Wash- 
ington, "is engaged in doing to the commerce 
of the Allies just what the British tried to do to 
the Deutschland when she left America. [The 



GERMAN COMMENT 37 

submarine Deutschland, engaged in commercial 
enterprise, had visited the United States some 
time previously.] It is a plain case of what is 
sometimes known as commerce-raiding. It is 
being done by submarines, that is all. War- 
fare, such as that which has been conducted 
in the Mediterranean, has been brought across 
the Atlantic. It should be easy to destroy more 
of the overseas commerce of the Allies, which 
is principally with America, near where it orig- 
inates." 

Here was a veiled threat — not so veiled either 
— which was no doubt marked in Washington. 
President Wilson received the news of the sink- 
ings in silence, but plainly government author- 
ities were worried over the situation. New 
problems were erected and the future was filled 
with possibilities of a multifarious nature. 

Thus, within twenty-four hours it was dem- 
onstrated that the war was not 3,000 miles 
away from us, but close to our shores. The 
implied threat that it would be a simple matter 
for submarines to cross the Atlantic and deal 
with us as they were dealing with France and 
England and other Entente nations — not to 



38 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

say harmless neutrals such as Holland and 
Scandinavia — was not lost upon the citizens of 
this country. But, as usual, German judgment 
in the matter of psychology was astray. The 
threat had no effect in the way of Schrecklich- 
lceit, but rather it steeled us to a future which 
began to appear inevitable. And deep under 
the surface affairs began to move in the Navy 
Department. 

No doubt, too, the conviction began to grow 
upon the government that the policy of deal- 
ing fairly by Germany was not appreciated, 
and that when the exigencies of the war situa- 
tion seemed to require it, our ships would be 
sent to the bottom as cheerfully as those of 
other neutrals such as Holland, Norway, and 
Sweden, as well as other countries who unfor- 
tunately were not in the positon to guard their 
neutrality with some show of dignity that we 
were in. 

Subsequent events proved how true this 
feeling was. For not six months later the Ger- 
man policy of sea aggression had brought us to 
the point where it was not possible for us to 
remain out of the conflict against the pirate 



LONG INTERVAL TO NEXT VISIT 39 

nation. It was in the following April that we 
went to war, and our first act was to send forth 
a destroyer flotilla to engage the U-boat in its 
hunting-ground. Among that flotilla, as said, 
were many of the craft which had rescued sur- 
vivors of the Nantucket affair. They were 
ready and their officers were ready, nay, eager. 
They swept across a stormy Atlantic like un- 
leashed hounds, and when the British com- 
mander received them at Queenstown, and 
asked the American commanders when they 
would be ready to take their places with the 
British destroyers, the answer came quickly: 

"We are ready now." 

And they were — allowing for the cleaning of 
a few hulls and the effecting of minor repairs 
to one or two of the vessels. Other destroyers 
remained here, of course, while a fringe of sub- 
marine-chasers and swift, armed yachts con- 
verted into government patrol-vessels were 
guarding our coast the day after the President 
signed the war resolution. But more than a 
year and a half was to elapse before our waters 
were again to know the submarine menace. 
Just why the Germans waited may not be known. 



40 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

Probably they had all they could attend to in 
foreign waters. In any event it was not until 
June, 1918, that a coastwise schooner captain 
was both surprised and indignant when a shot 
from a craft which he took to be an American 
submarine went across his bows. It was not 
an American submarine; it was a German sub- 
mersible and that schooner was sent to the 
bottom, followed by other wind-jammers and 
the Porto Rico liner Carolina. 

Thus, what in the original instance was a 
test journey in the interests of German sub- 
marine activity — the visit of the U-53 in Oc- 
tober, 1916 — as well as a threat to this country 
bore its fruit in the development of that test 
trip, and in the fulfilment of that threat. At 
this writing the coastwise marauder, or ma- 
rauders, are still off our shores, and clouds of 
navy craft are seeking to destroy them. We 
are far better equipped for such service than 
we were when Captain Hans Rose came here 
in his submarine, and it is divulging no secret 
information to say that this and further in- 
vasions of our home waters will be dealt with 
bravely and rigorously without the necessity 



CONGRESS DEBATES 41 

of subtracting from the number of war-vessels 
that are engaged with Allied fighters in main- 
taining commerce upon the waters of Europe. 

But this is getting a bit further ahead than 
I intended to go at this juncture. The primary 
point is that with the visit of Captain Hans Rose 
in his undersea boat, with her depredations off 
our coast, the Navy Department, saying noth- 
ing to outsiders, came to accept the idea of war 
as something more than a possible contingency. 

Debates in Congress were characterized by 
an increasing pointedness, and stories of sea 
murders increased rather than diminished. And 
not infrequently there were Americans on board 
those ships. At length came the sinking of 
American merchantmen and the final decision 
by our government to place armed guards on 
all merchant vessels carrying our flag. It was 
then that the Navy Department was called 
upon to take the first open steps against the 
German sea menace — steps rife with grim pos- 
sibilities, since it operated to bring our seamen 
gunners into actual conflict with the German 
naval forces. There could be little doubt, there- 
fore, that war would follow in inevitable course. 



CHAPTER II 

OUR NAVY ARMS AMERICAN MERCHANT VESSELS — DEATH 
OF OUR FIRST BLUEJACKET ON SERVICE IN THE WAR 

ZONE VICE-ADMIRAL SIMS WE TAKE OVER PATROL OF 

WATERS OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE THE NAVAL AD- 
VISORY BOARD OF INVENTIONS WORK OF THIS BODY 

OUR BATTLESHIPS THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD 

WIDE-SPREAD OPERATIONS 

ANNOUNCEMENT was made on March 
■* *■ 12, 1917, that American merchantmen 
would be armed for protection against sub- 
marine attacks, and hundreds of guns of proper 
calibers were required for the purpose. These 
were taken from the vessels of the fleet and, 
of course, had to be replaced as soon as possible. 
Work was expeditiously carried forward, and 
hardly had the order for armed guards been 
issued than the American freighter Campana 
was sent to Europe well-laden with cargo and 
prepared to make matters interesting for any 
submarine that saw fit to attack by the then 
prevailing method of shell-fire. Other vessels 
soon followed, and the country witnessed the 
anomalous condition of the navy in war service 

42 



FIRST FATALITY 43 

in the European war zone before war was de- 
clared. 

The navy, in fact, had its first death in ser- 
vice before we went to war, when on April 1, 
John Espolucci, of Washington, D. C, one of 
the armed guard of the steamship Aztec, was 
killed in the course of events attending the 
destruction of that vessel by a submarine. By 
this time active hostilities had seemed inevitable 
and before the sinking of the Aztec the Navy 
Department had sent Admiral William S. Sims 
abroad to get in touch with the British and 
French Admiralties for the purpose of discuss- 
ing the most effective participation of our 
war-ships in the conflict. Later, when war 
was actually declared, Sims was promoted to 
vice-admiral, and made commander of the 
United States naval forces operating in Euro- 
pean waters. 

No better man for this post could have been 
selected. A graduate of the Naval Academy 
in the class of 1880, his career in the navy had 
been one sequence of brilliant achievement. 
As naval attache at Paris and Petrograd, in 
the course of his distinguished service he had 



44 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

ample opportunities for the study of European 
naval conditions, and later he was intrusted 
with the important duty of developing gun- 
nery practice and marksmanship in our battle- 
fleet. The immense value of his work in this 
respect is an open book. His instincts were 
wholly scientific, and with neither fear nor 
favor he carried forward our record for marks- 
manship until it was second to that of no navy 
in the world. The one mark upon his record 
is an indiscreet speech made in London, be- 
fore the European War occurred, in which he 
stated that blood was thicker than water, and 
that at the necessary moment the navies of 
the United States and of Great Britain would 
be found joined in brotherly co-operation. Eng- 
land liked that speech a lot, but Germany did 
not, and Washington was rather embarrassed. 
Beginning, however, with April of 1917, that 
speech delivered several years previously was 
recalled as perfectly proper, pat, and apropos. 
There can be no doubt that his constructive 
advice, suggestion, and criticism were of enor- 
mous benefit to the British and the French, 
and by the same token exceedingly harmful 






SIMS IN COMMAND 45 

to the murderous submarine campaign of Ger- 
many. As evidence of the regard in which the 
admiralty of Great Britain held this American 
officer, witness the fact that upon one occasion 
when the British commander-in-chief of naval 
operations on the Irish coast was compelled 
to leave his command for a period, Admiral 
Sims was nominated by the admiralty to serve 
as chief of the combined forces until the British 
commander returned. 

But this mission of Admiral Sims, and the 
eventual despatch of submarine flotillas to the 
war zone, were but two phases of the enormous 
problem which confronted the Navy Depart- 
ment upon the outbreak of hostilities. There 
was first of all the task of organizing and operat- 
ing the large transport system required to carry 
our share of troops overseas for foreign service. 
Within a month after the President had an- 
nounced that troops would be sent to Europe 
the first contingent had been organized, and all 
its units were safely landed in France before the 
4th of July. These included a force of marines 
under Colonel (now Brigadier-General) Charles 
A. Doyen, which is serving in the army under 



46 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

Major-General Pershing. Since that time a 
constant stream of troops and supplies has 
poured across the Atlantic under naval con- 
trol and supervision, the presiding officer in 
charge of transport being Rear-Admiral Albert 
Gleaves. 

Then, again, the United States took over 
control of most of the patrol of the western 
Atlantic. Our thousands of miles of coast had 
to be guarded against enemy attack and pro- 
tected against German raiders. A squadron 
under command of Admiral William B. Caper- 
ton was sent to South America and received 
with the utmost enthusiasm at Rio de Janeiro, 
at Montevideo and Buenos Aires, which cities 
were visited on invitation from the govern- 
ments of Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. After 
Brazil's entrance into the war the Brazilian 
Navy co-operated with our vessels in the patrol 
of South American waters. 

The taking over of some 800 craft of various 
kinds, and their conversion into types needed, 
provided the navy with the large number of 
vessels required for transports, patrol service, 
submarine-chasers, mine-sweepers, mine-layers, 



CAMPANA FIRST ARMED 47 

tugs, and other auxiliaries. The repair of the 
109 German ships whose machinery had been 
damaged by their crews — details of which will 
be treated in a subsequent chapter — added 
more than 700,000 tons to our available naval 
and merchant tonnage, and provided for the 
navy a number of huge transports which have 
been in service for nearly a year. Hundreds 
of submarine-chasers have now been built, and 
a number of destroyers and other craft com- 
pleted and placed in service. The first merchant 
ship to be armed was the oil-tanker Campana; 
guns manned by navy men were on board when 
she sailed for Europe, March 12, 1917. The 
big American passenger-liners St. Paul and 
New York were armed on March 16 of that 
year, and the Red Star liner Kroonland and 
the Mongolia on March 19. And continuously 
up to the present writing merchant ships as 
they have become available have been armed 
and provided with navy gun crews. Since the 
arming of the Campana more than 1,300 vessels 
have been furnished with batteries, ammuni- 
tion, spare parts, and auxiliaries. 

But of equal importance, greater importance 



48 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

history may decree it, was Secretary Daniels's 
action in 1915 of appointing the Naval Ad- 
visory Board of Inventions. That was looking 
ahead with a vengeance. The idea was to make 
available the latent inventive genius of the 
country to improve the navy. The plan adopted 
by Secretary Daniels for selecting this extraor- 
dinary board included a request to the eleven 
great engineering and scientific societies of the 
country to select by popular election two 
members to represent their society on the board. 
Results were immediately gratifying. Nomina- 
tions were forthcoming at once, and in September 
of 1915 the board, which came popularly to be 
known as the Inventions Board, met in Wash- 
ington for organization. Thomas A. Edison 
was selected by the Secretary of the Navy as 
chairman of the board, and the other members 
were elected as follows: 

From the American Chemical Society: W. R. 
Whitney, director of Research Laboratory, Gen- 
eral Electric Company, where he has been the 
moving spirit in the perfection of metallic elec- 
tric-lamp filaments and the development of 
wrought tungsten. L. H. Baekeland, founder 



EXPERTS APPOINTED 49 

of the Nepera Chemical Company and inventor 
of photographic paper. 

From the American Institute of Electrical 
Engineers: Frank Julian Sprague, consulting 
engineer for Sprague, Otis, and General Electric 
Companies and concerned in the establishment 
of the first electrical trolley systems in this 
country. B. G. Lamme, chief engineer of the 
Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Com- 
pany and a prolific inventor. 

From the American Mathematical Society: 
Robert Simpson Woodward, president of the 
Carnegie Institution and an authority on as- 
tronomy, geography, and mathematical physics. 
Arthur Gordon Webster, professor of physics at 
Clark University and an authority on sound, 
its production and measurement. 

From the American Society of Civil Engi- 
neers: Andrew Murray Hunt, consulting engi- 
neer, experienced in the development of hydro- 
electric, steam, and gas plants. Alfred Craven, 
chief engineer of Public Service Commission, 
New York, and formerly division engineer in 
charge of construction work on Croton aqueduct 
and reservoirs. 



&0 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

From the American Aeronautical Society: 
Mathew Bacon Sellers, director of Technical 
Board of the American Aeronautical Society 
and the first to determine dynamic wind-pres- 
sure on arched surfaces by means of "wind 
funnel." Hudson Maxim, ordnance and ex- 
plosive expert, maker of the first smokeless 
powder adopted by the United States Govern- 
ment. 

The Inventors' Guild: Peter Cooper Hewitt, 
inventor of electric lamp, appliances to enable 
direct-current apparatus to be used with al- 
ternating-current circuits, and devices for tele- 
phones and aircraft. Thomas Robbins, presi- 
dent of Robbins Conveying Belt Company and 
inventor of many devices for conveying coal 
and ore. 

From American Society of Automobile En- 
gineers: Andrew L. Riker, vice-president of 
Locomobile Company, electrical and mechanical 
engineer and inventor of many automobile 
devices. Howard E. Coffin, vice-president of 
Hudson Motor Car Company and active in 
the development of internal-combustion en- 
gines. 



MANY BODIES INVOLVED 51 

From the American Institute of Mining En- 
gineers: William Laurence Saunders, chairman 
of the Board of Directors of the Ingersoll-Rand 
Company and inventor of many devices for 
subaqueous and rock drilling. Benjamin Bow- 
ditch Thayer, president of the Anaconda Cop- 
per Mining Company and an authority on ex- 
plosives. 

From the American Electro Chemical So- 
ciety: Joseph William Richards, professor of 
Electro-Chemistry at Lehigh and author of 
numerous works on electrometallurgy. Law- 
rence Addicks, consulting engineer for Phelps, 
Dodge and Company and authority on the 
metallurgy of copper. 

American Society of Mechanical Engineers: 
William Leroy Emmet, engineer with the Gen- 
eral Electric Company. He designed and per- 
fected the development of the Curtis Turbine 
and was the first serious promoter of electric 
propulsion for ships. Spencer Miller, inventor 
of ship-coaling apparatus and the breeches- 
buoy device used in rescues from shipwrecks. 

From the American Society of Aeronautic 
Engineers: Henry Alexander Wise Wood, en- 



52 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

gineer and manufacturer of printing-machinery 
and student of naval aeronautics. Elmer Am- 
brose Sperry, founder of Sperry Electric Com- 
pany, designer of electric appliances and gyro- 
scope stabilizer for ships and airplanes. 

Just what service this board has performed 
is in the keeping of the government. But that 
it has been a distinguished service we may not 
doubt. , Seated in their headquarters at Wash- 
ington, their minds centred upon the various 
problems of the sea which the war brought 
forth, they have unquestionably exerted a con- 
structive influence no less vital than that played 
by the officers and men of the navy on the fight- 
ing front. Only one announcement ever came 
from this board, and that was when William 
L. Saunders gave forth the statement that a 
means of combating the submarine had been 
devised. This early in the war. Doubt as to 
the strict accuracy of the statement came from 
other members of the Inventions Board, and 
then the whole matter was hushed. Mr. Saun- 
ders said nothing more and neither did his col- 
leagues. 

But whether emanating from the lucubra- 



DEPTH-BOMBS 53 

tions of Mr. Edison's board, or wherever de- 
vised, we know that the American Navy has 
applied many inventions to the work of com- 
bating the under-sea pirate. A type of depth- 
bomb was developed and applied. This is one 
of the most efficient methods of beating the 
submarine that has yet been found. Explosive 
charges are fitted with a mechanism designed 
to explode the charge at a predetermined depth 
below the surface of the sea. The force of the 
explosion of a depth charge dropped close to 
a submarine is sufficient to disable if not sink 
it, and American boats have been fitted with 
various interesting means of getting these 
bombs into the water. 

Smoke-producing apparatus was developed 
to enable a vessel to conceal herself behind a 
smoke-screen when attacked by submarines 
and thus escape. Several types of screen have 
been invented and applied in accordance with 
the character of the vessel. After a study of 
the various types of mines in existence, there 
was produced an American mine believed to 
involve all the excellent points of mines of what- 
ever nationality, while another extraordinary 



54 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

invention was the non-ricochet projectile. The 
ordinary pointed projectile striking the water 
almost horizontally is deflected and ricochets. 
A special type of shell which did not glance off 
the surface of the ocean was developed early 
in 1917 and supplied to all vessels sailing in 
the war zone. 

The first year of the war saw also the de- 
velopment of the seaplane, with the adaption 
to this vehicle of the air a nonrecoil gun, which 
permits the use of comparatively large calibers, 
and of the Lewis gun. This year saw also the 
completion of the latest type of naval 16-inch 
gun, throwing a projectile weighing 2,100 
pounds. Our newest battleships will mount 
them. In this connection it is interesting to note 
that broadside weights have tripled in the short 
space of twenty years; that the total weight of 
steel thrown by a single broadside of the 
Pennsylvania to-day is 17,508 pounds, while 
the total weight thrown from the broadside 
of the Oregon of Spanish-American War fame 
was 5,600 pounds. 

The navy also went in vigorously for aviation 
and has done exceedingly well. After the ex- 



SPECIALIZED ACTIVITIES 55 

pansion of private plants had been provided 
for, the navy decided to operate a factory of its 
own, and a great building 400 by 400 feet was 
erected in Philadelphia in 110 days at a cost 
of $700,000. Contracts involving approximately 
$1,600,000 have been made which will more 
than treble the capacity of this plant. 

In addition to work of this sort and services 
including scores of specialized activities, such 
as medical development, ordnance and muni- 
tions manufacture, building of yards, docks, 
and all sorts of accessory facilities, the navy 
before the war had been a month under way 
had given contracts for the construction of 
several hundred submarine-chasers, having a 
length of 110 feet and driven by three 220- 
horse-power gasolene-engines, to thirty -one pri- 
vate firms and six navy-yards. All of these 
craft are now in service, and have done 
splendidly both in meeting stormy seas and 
in running down the submarines. While the 
British prefer a smaller type of submarine- 
chaser, they have no criticism of ours. Many 
of these 110-footers, built of wood, crossed the 
ocean in weather which did considerable dam- 



56 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

age to larger craft, and yet were practically 
unscathed. The French are using many of 
them. 

Another larger type of chaser, corresponding 
to the destroyer, is the patrol-boat of the Eagle 
class built at the plant of Henry Ford in De- 
troit. 

The most recent battleships laid down by 
the navy are the largest ever attempted. The 
biggest British battleship of which we have 
knowledge displaces 27,500 tons; the largest 
German, 28,448 metric tons (28,000 American 
tons), while the largest Japanese battleship 
displaces 30,600 tons. These may be compared 
with our Arizona and Pennsylvania, 31,400 tons; 
Idaho, Mississippi, and New Mexico, 32,000 
tons; California and Tennessee 32,300 tons, Col- 
orado, Washington, Maryland, and West Virginia, 
32,600 tons, while six new battleships author- 
ized early in the present year are designed to be 
41,500 tons. Our new battle-cruisers of 35,000 
tons and 35 knots speed will be the swiftest in 
the world, having a speed equal to the latest 
and fastest destroyers. They will also be the 
largest in the world with the exception of the 



CIVILIAN EMPLOYES 57 

four British battle-cruisers of the Hood class, 
which are 41,200 tons. 

On April 1, 1917, the total number of civilian 
employees in the nine principal navy-yards was 
29,708. On March 1, 1918, the total number 
of employees in the same yards was 58,026. 
The total number of mechanics now employed 
at all navy yards and stations throughout the 
country is more than 66,000. 

The Navy Powder Factory at Indianapolis, 
Ind., manufactures powder of the highest grade 
for use in the big guns; it employs 1,000 men 
and covers a square mile. Additional build- 
ings and machinery, together with a new gen- 
erating-plant, are now being installed. The 
torpedo-station at Newport, a large plant where 
torpedoes are manufactured, has been greatly 
enlarged and its facilities in the way of pro- 
duction radically increased. Numerous ammu- 
nition-plants throughout the country prepare the 
powder charge, load and fuse the shell, handle 
high explosives, and ship the ammunition to 
vessels in the naval service. Among recent ad- 
ditions to facilities is an automatic mine-load- 
ing plant of great capacity and new design. 



58 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

Schools of various sorts, ranging from those 
devoted to the teaching of wireless telegraphy 
to cooking, were established in various parts 
of the country, and from them a constant grist 
of highly specialized men are being sent to the 
ships and to stations. 

In these, and in numerous ways not here 
mentioned, the Navy Department signalized its 
entrance into the war. While many new fields 
had to be entered— with sequential results in 
way of mistakes and delays — there were more 
fields, all important, wherein constructive 
preparation before we entered the war were 
revealed when the time came to look for prac- 
tical results. 



CHAPTER III 

FIRST HOSTILE CONTACT BETWEEN THE NAVY AND THE 

GERMANS — ARMED GUARDS ON MERCHANT VESSELS 

"CAMPANA" FHtST TO SAIL DANIELS REFUSES OFFER OF 

MONEY AWARDS TO MEN WHO SINK SUBMARINES " MON- 
GOLIA " SHOWS GERMANY HOW THE YANKEE SAILORMAN 
BITES— FIGHT OF THE " SILVERSHELL "— HEROISM OF 
GUNNERS ON MERCHANT SHIPS SINKING OF THE "AN- 
TILLES" EXPERIENCES OF VOYAGERS 

TN the way of direct hostile contact between 
-1 the Navy Department and Germany we 
find the first steps taken in the placing of armed 
naval-guards on American merchantmen. While 
this was authorized by the government before 
war was declared, it was recognized as a step 
that would almost inevitably lead to our taking 
our part in the European conflict and the na- 
tion, as a consequence, prepared its mind for 
such an outcome of our new sea policy. Ger- 
many had announced her policy of unrestricted 
submarine warfare in February, 1917, and on 
Feburary 10 of that month two American 
steamships, the Orleans and the Rochester, left 

59 



60 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

port for France in defiance of the German warn- 
ing. Both vessels were unarmed and both ar- 
rived safely on the other side — the Rochester 
was subsequently sunk — but their sailing with- 
out any means of defense against attack aroused 
the nation and spurred Congress to action. 

On March 12 the first armed American mer- 
chantman, the Campana, left port with a gun 
mounted astern, and a crew of qualified naval 
marksmen to man it. In the following October 
Secretary Daniels announced that his depart- 
ment had found guns and crews for every one 
of our merchant vessels designated for armament 
and that the guards consisted of from sixteen 
to thirty-two men under command of com- 
missioned or chief petty officers of the navy. 
When the work of finding guns for vessels was 
begun the navy had few pieces that were avail- 
able. While there were many fine gunners in 
the naval force, there were not a sufficient num- 
ber of them to enable the quick arming of mer- 
chantmen without handicapping the war-ships. 

So every battleship in the navy was con- 
verted into a school of fire to train men for the 
duty, and the naval ordnance plants entered 



REWARDS OFFERED 61 

upon the work of turning out guns qualified 
for service on merchant craft. There were 
guns in stock, as a matter of fact, but the number 
was insufficient for the purpose in hand be- 
cause, before the submarine developed a new 
sort of sea warfare, it was not the policy of the 
nations to arm merchant vessels other than 
those used as naval auxiliaries. But, as already 
said, so expeditiously were affairs carried on 
that some six months after the decision to equip 
our freighters and passenger-liners with means 
of protection we had the sailors and the guns 
necessary to meet all demands. 

The following telegraphic correspondence, be- 
tween two St. Louis business men and the Secre- 
tary of the Navy, gives a very fair idea of the 
spirit in which the citizens of this country ac- 
cepted the decision of the government to arm 
our merchant marine: 

"St. Louis, Mo., April 11, 1917. 
"Hon. Josephus Daniels, Secretary of the Navy, 
Washington, D. C. 
"We will pay $500 to the captain and crew 
of the first American merchant ship to destroy 



62 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

a hostile submarine after this date. Money 
will be paid on award by your office." 

"Benjamin Gratz. . 

"Anderson Gratz." 

To which Mr. Daniels replied as follows: 

"I thank you for the spirit which prompted 
your offer. It is my distinct feeling that money 
rewards for such bravery is not in keeping with 
the spirit of our day." 

And neither it was. The American naval 
men were intent upon duty and their duty was 
merely to protect the dignity as well as the 
safety of our sea-borne commerce. The merce- 
nary element was absent and that Mr. Daniels 
did well to emphasize this fact was the con- 
viction of the navy as well as of the entire coun- 
try; while, at the same time, as the secretary 
said, the spirit underlying the offer was appre- 
ciated. I 

In the meantime the German Government — 
which no doubt had not expected such drastic 
action on the part of the United States — was 
profoundly disturbed, and it was stated that 
crews of American merchantmen who ven- 



GERMAN ATTITUDE 63 

tured to fire upon German submarines before 
a state of war existed between the two coun- 
tries must expect to meet the fate of the Brit- 
ish merchant captain, Charles Fryatt, who, 
as will be recalled, was tried and executed in 
Germany for attempting to ram the German 
submarine 7-33 with his vessel, the Great East- 
ern Railway steamship, Brussels, in July of 
1916. This warning set forth in the Neueste 
Nachrichten, of Munich, is so ingenious that 
the reader interested in Teutonic pyschology 
will no doubt be interested in the perusal 

thereof. 

"We assume," the newspaper said, "that 
President Wilson realizes the fate to which he 
is subjecting his artillerymen. According to 
the German prize laws it is unneutral support 
of the enemy if a neutral ship takes part in 
hostilities. If such a ship opposes the prize- 
court then it must be treated as an enemy ship. 
The prize rules specify as to the crews of such 
ships. If, without being attached to the forces 
of the enemy, they take part in hostilities or 
make forcible resistance, they may be treated 
according to the usages of war. If President 



64 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

Wilson, knowing these provisions of interna- 
tional law, proceeds to arm American mer- 
chantmen he must assume responsibility for 
the eventuality that American seamen will 
meet the fate of Captain Fryatt." 

All of which did not appear to frighten our 
government one bit. We set ourselves to the 
task of equipping our merchant craft with sea- 
men-gunners and guns, and it was not long — 
April 25, in fact — before an incident occurred 
that brought forth a chuckle from Colonel 
Roosevelt, a chuckle accompanied by the his- 
toric remark: "Thank heaven! Americans 
have at last begun to hit. We have been al- 
together too long at the receiving end of this 
war that Germany has been waging upon us." 

This ebullition was occasioned by the report 
of the first real American blow of the war when, 
late in April, 1917, the crack American freighter 
Mongolia showed the German Navy that the 
time had arrived when the long, strong arm of 
Uncle Sam was reaching out a brawny fist over 
the troubled waters of the Atlantic. 

The Mongolia had left an American port 
after war had been declared, and she was guarded 



MONGOLIA'S MEN ON WATCH 65 

by a 6-inch gun, with a crew of seamen-gunners 
under command of Lieutenant Bruce Ware. 
Captain Emery Rice commanded the freighter, 
and the voyage across the Atlantic had pro- 
ceeded without incident until the port of destina- 
tion, an English port, lay just twenty-four 
hours away. In other words, the Mongolia was 
in the war zone. The sea was untroubled, and 
the gun crew gathered at their stations and 
the lookouts on mast and deck were beginning 
to believe that the trip would end as unevent- 
fully as it had begun. No doubt there was some 
disappointment in this thought; for, strange as 
it may seem, our armed freighters were rather 
inclined to hunt out the submarines than to 
dodge them. It has been the frequent testi- 
mony that our armed guards are always spoil- 
ing for fight, not seeking to avoid it. 

At all events, the freighter steamed through 
the light mists of the April afternoon — it was 
the anniversary of the battle of Lexington — 
and Captain Rice, who had been five days in 
his clothes, and Lieutenant Ware of the navy 
and his nineteen men, serving the two 4 -inch 
forward guns and the 6-inch stern piece, cast- 



66 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

ing their eyes over the vast stretch of water 
when at 5.30 o'clock the gruff voice of the first 
mate, who had been peering over the dodger 
rail of the bridge rumbled over the vessel. 

"Submarine. Two points off the port bow." 

There it was, sure enough, a periscope at 
least, practically dead ahead, her position with 
relation to the Mongolia being such that the 
vessel offered a narrow target, a target hardly 
worth the wasting of a valuable torpedo. No, 
the submarine was either waiting for a broad- 
side expanse or else was intent upon a gun- 
fight. 

Lieutenant Ware and his seamen were ready. 
In compliance to a sharply spoken order the 
three guns were turned upon the periscope. 
But quick as the gunners were, the submarine 
was quicker, and as the guns were brought to 
bear the periscope sank gently out of sight. 
Captain Rice almost pulled the engine-room 
signal telegraph-lever out by its roots in bring- 
ing the ship to full speed toward the spot where 
the periscope had last been seen, his idea of 
course, being to ram the lurking craft. 

For two minutes nothing was seen and then 



"THERE SHE BLOWS!" 67 

a shout from one of the lookouts heralded the 
reappearance of the submersible, this time a 
thousand yards to port, the Mongolia offering 
to the Germans a fair broadside expanse of hull. 
Lieutenant Ware's voice arose and the next 
instant the 6-inch piece spoke. That periscope 
went into splinters; a direct hit. Watchers 
on the freighter saw the shell strike its mark 
fairly. A great geyser arose from the sea, and 
when it died there were evidences of commo- 
tion beneath the surface. Then gradually foam 
and oil spread upon the gentle waves. 

There was no doubt about the hit. Lieu- 
tenant Ware knew before the shell struck that 
the aim had been accurate. There was no guess- 
work about it. It was a case of pure mathe- 
matics. The whole affair was over in two min- 
utes. The vessel did not stop to reconnoitre, 
but steamed away at full speed, sending ahead 
wireless reports of the fight against the under- 
sea craft. The British naval officers who came 
bounding across the waters on their destroyers 
were extremely complimentary in their praise, 
and when the Mongolia returned to New York 
there was a dinner in honor of Lieutenant Ware, 



68 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

an expression of the lingering emotions which 
had fired the nation when word of the incident 
was cabled to this country. Since that fight 
the Germans, enraged, seem to have marked 
the Mongolia; for in succeeding months she 
was set upon repeatedly by the submarine 
flotilla, seeking revenge for her temerity in 
sending one of their number to the bottom. 
But she is still afloat and ready for anything 
that comes out of the sea. 

None the less, the government began to feel 
that it would be wiser not to mention the names 
of ships engaged with submarines, and thus 
when the next good fight occurred the name 
of the vessel engaged was not given. Aside 
from hoping thus to keep a vessel from being 
marked it had been the experience of the Brit- 
ish Government that when Germans had iden- 
tified captured sailors as having belonged to 
vessels that had sunk or damaged submarines 
they subjected them to unusual severity. Our 
navy wished to avoid this in the case of our 
men. 

However, the name of the vessel which en- 
gaged in a fight on May 30, was given out the 



THE SILVERSHELL 69 

day after the Washington report by the French 
Ministry of Marine. It was the Silvershell, 
commanded by Captain Tom Charlton with 
a gun crew commanded by William J. Clark, 
a warrant-officer from the battleship Arkansas. 
The battle occurred on May 30, in the Mediter- 
ranean and in addition to strength added by 
an efficient gun crew, whose commander, Clark, 
had been a turret captain on the Arkansas, the 
Silver shell was an extremely fast ship. As a 
consequence, when the submarine poked her 
nose out of the Mediterranean blue, expecting 
easy prey, she found confronting her a man's- 
size battle. In all sixty shots were exchanged, 
and the submarine not only beaten off, but 
sunk with the twenty -first shot fired from the 
Silvershell. It was a great fight, and Clark was 
recommended for promotion. 

While the government jealously guarded de- 
tails of this and subsequent fights, the country 
had adequate food for pride in such announce- 
ments from the Navy Department as that of 
July 26, when certain gun-crew officers were 
cited for promotion and an outline of reasons 
therefor set forth. 



70 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

There was Andrew Copassaki, chief boat- 
swain's mate, for instance, who was transferred 
from the battleship Arkansas to take charge of 
the gun crew of the steamship Moreni. He 
commanded this crew when the Moreni was 
sunk by a German submarine on the morning 
of June 12. This gun crew put up a fight on 
the deck of that sinking vessel which was so 
gallant as to elicit words of praise from the 
commander of the attacking submarine. Copas- 
saki, when the ship was in flames, from shell- 
fire, rushed through the fire to the forward 
gun and continued to serve it against the sub- 
marine until the gun was put completely out 
of commission. This gallant hero was born in 
Greece, and had been in the navy twenty 

years. 

Then there was Harry Waterhouse, a chief 
turret captain, transferred from the dread- 
nought New York to command the armed 
crew of the Petrolite which was sunk by a II- 
boat on June 10. The vessel sank so rapidly 
after being torpedoed that the guns could not 
be used. The navy men, however, under the 
command of Waterhouse, assisted in getting 



LOSS OF PETROLITE 71 

out the boats and lowering them and getting 
the crew to safety, to a man — although the 
Petrolite went over on her beam ends in less 
than a minute. No member of the armed guard 
left the sinking vessel until ordered to do so 
by Waterhouse. These are but a few of the 
instances of signal gallantry which have filled 
the records of our navy since we entered the 
war. 

And while our merchant crews were thus at 
work the navy was busy sending soldiers to 
the other side. Not a mishap had occurred 
on the eastbound traffic — and at this writing 
none has yet occurred — but on October 17, the 
transport Antilles, which had made several safe 
journeys with soldiers destined for General 
Pershing's expeditionary forces, was torpedoed 
and sunk when homeward bound with a loss of 
70 lives out of 237 men on board. The trans- 
port was sunk while under the convoy of Amer- 
ican naval patrol-vessels, and she had on board 
the usual armed gun crew. 

Not only was the Antilles the first American 
Army transport to be lost in the present war, 
but she was the first vessel under American 



72 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

convoy to be successfully attacked. She was 
well out to sea at the time and the convoy of 
protecting vessels was smaller for this reason, 
and for the fact that she was westbound, carry- 
ing no troops. The submarine was never seen 
and neither was the torpedo. There has been 
rumor that the explosion that sank her came 
from the inside, but so far as any one knows 
this is merely port gossip of such nature as arises 
when vessels are lost. Our second transport 
to be lost was the President Lincoln, taken over 
from the Germans when war was declared. 
She, too, was eastbound, well out to sea, and 
the loss of life was small. The third was the 
Covington, formerly the German liner Cincin- 
nati, which was torpedoed in the early summer of 
this year while on her way to an American port. 
Life on merchantmen, freighters, liners, and 
the like, crossing the Atlantic, has been fraught 
with peril and with excitement ever since we 
went into the war. Even with armed guards 
there are of course all sorts of chances of dis- 
aster, chances frequently realized; but, on the 
other hand, in a great majority of cases the ves- 
sels of the transatlantic passenger service have 



IN THE WAR ZONE 73 

crossed to and fro, giving their passengers all 
the thrills of an exciting situation without sub- 
jecting them to anything more serious. 

Let me quote in part a letter from a Prince- 
ton man, Pleasants Pennington, who was a 
passenger on the French transatlantic liner 
Rochambeau, on one of its trips late in 1917. 

"What about the submarines ? They haven't 
put in an appearance yet. We haven't worried 
about them because we only got into the war 
zone last night; but I may have more to write 
about before we get into Bordeaux on Wednes- 
day or Thursday. There are several people on 
board — especially ladies of the idle rich — who 
nave been much concerned about the safety 
of the ship and incidentally their own skins. 
. . . The Frenchmen, the officers of the ship 
and especially the captain (his name is Joam) 
take a very philosophic view of the situation, 
and shrug their shoulders with Gallic fatalism. 
If they shall be torpedoed — taut pis! But why 
worry? ... I had a talk with our captain 
the second day out, and he seemed to have 
made a pretty thorough study of tactics for 
avoiding submarines. He said they did not 



74 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

go more than 800 miles from land, and that the 
best protection is to go fast and keep one's eyes 
open. The Rochambeau had two beautiful new 
6-inch guns mounted on the stern and a 3--inch 
gun in the bow. ... As near as I can gather, 
our tactics seem to be to keep a lookout ahead 
and trust to getting a shot at any submarine 
that shows its head before it can launch a tor- 
pedo. I believe torpedoes are not accurate at 
over a mile, and the speed of a submarine is 
only nine knots while ours is nineteen. ... I 
think the most distinctive feature of war-time 
travel is the fact that the boat must be per- 
fectly dark at night to an outside observer. 
This rule is observed on the entire voyage, and 
results in heavy iron shutters being bolted on 
all port-holes and windows as soon as dusk falls 
so that the entire atmosphere of the cabins, 
smoking-room, reading-rooms, etc., becomes 
very vile in a surprisingly short time after 
dark. . . . We now sleep on deck and are very 
comfortable. The deck is crowded at night 
with people of different ages, sexes, and national- 
ities, sleeping in the most charming confusion 
and proximity." 



IN THE CROW'S-NEST 75 

Well, the Rochambeau arrived without un- 
toward incident as she had done so often be- 
fore and has done since. Another letter is that 
of a Yale senior, enlisted in the navy and one 
of the crew of a transport. "We looked very 
formidable as we steamed out of the harbor. 
An armored cruiser led the way and on either 
side a torpedo destroyer. . . . We proceed 
very cautiously. After sunset all lights go out. 
There is no smoking anywhere on board and 
not a light even in the stateroom. Then if we 
look out we see the other ships of the convoy — 
we hug one another closely — just stumbling 
through the water like phantom shapes — and 
that's the weirdest sight I have ever seen. . . . 
To-day we are having gun practice on board 
the transport — trial shots for the subs and the 
cruiser experimenting with balloon observers. 
Such are our interests. . . . Last night I had 
a wonderful experience. It was delightful — 
one of those that tickle my masculine pride. 
I was detailed in charge of a watch in the for- 
ward crow's-nest — a basket-like affair on the 
very top of the foremast about 150 feet from 
the water. . . . From the nest you get a won- 



76 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

derful view — a real bird's-eye view — for the 
men walking on the deck appear as pigmies, 
and the boats following in our trail look like 
dories. Our duty is to watch with powerful 
glasses for any traces of periscopes, and we are 
connected up with telephones to the gunners 
who are always ready for the 'call' and eager 
for action. This is only the first of the thrilling 
experiences which I expect, or, rather, hope to 
have." But that convoy arrived safely, too. 

The convoy, by the way, was largely an Amer- 
ican idea, a departure from the policy of pro- 
tecting a single vessel. A group of craft about 
to cross, sometimes as many as a score or more, 
are sent forth together under adequate pro- 
tection of destroyers and cruisers. At night 
towing-disks are dropped astern. These are 
white and enable the rearward vessels to keep 
their distance with relation to those steaming 
ahead. The destroyers circle in and about the 
convoyed craft, which, in the meantime, are 
describing zigzag courses in order that sub- 
marines may not be able to calculate their gun 
or torpedo fire with any degree of accuracy. 

The destroyers shoot in front of bows and 



LOSS OF THE TUSCANIA 77 

around sterns with impunity, leaving in their 
trail a phosphorescent wake. Sometimes in 
the case of a fast liner the destroyers, what 
with the high speed of the craft they are pro- 
tecting and the uncertain course, narrowly 
escape disaster. As a matter of fact, one of 
them, the American destroyer Chauncey, was lost 
in this manner. But she is the only one. 

Here is a letter from a Yale man, a sailor, 
which contains rather a tragic story, the loss 
of the transport Tuscania under British con- 
voy: 

"I could see a lighthouse here and there on 
the Irish and Scotch shores, and though I knew 
there were plenty of ships about not one was 
to be seen. (It was night, of course). All at 
once I saw a dull flare and a moment after a 
heavy boom. Then about half a mile away 
the Tuscania stood out in the glare of all the 
lights suddenly turned on. I could see her 
painted funnels and the sides clear and distinct 
against the dark. Another boom and the lights 
and the ship herself vanished. The next in- 
stant lights and rockets began to go up, red 
and white, and from their position I knew they 



78 



OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 



must be from the Tuscania and that she was 
falling out of the convoy. Then came a crash 
of guns and a heavier shock that told of depth- 
bombs and the blaze of a destroyer's search- 
lights — gone again in an instant — and then 
absolute silence." 



The sinking of the Antilles was followed — 
October 25, 1917 — by an announcement that 
thereafter bluejackets would man and naval 
officers command all transports. Up to that 
time, while there had been naval guards on the 
transports, the crews and officers of ships had 
been civilians. It was believed that highly 
disciplined naval men would be more effective 
than the constantly shifting crews of civilians. 
So it has proved. 



CHAPTER IV 

DESTROYERS ON GUARD PREPARATIONS ^ OF FLOTILLA TO 

CROSS THE OCEAN MEETING THE " ADRIATIC" FLO- 
TILLA ARRIVES IN QUEENSTOWN— RECEPTION BY BRITISH 

COMMANDER AND POPULACE "WE ARE READY NOW, 

sm "_ ARRrV AL OF THE FAMOUS CAPTAIN EVANS ON THE 
AMERICAN FLAG-SHIP— OUR NAVY A WARM-WEATHER 
NAVY LOSS OF THE " VACUUM" 

WHEN we entered the war the Navy De- 
partment had one definite idea con- 
cerning its duty with regard to the submarine. 
It was felt that it was more necessary to deal 
drastically with this situation than to meet it 
merely by building a large fleet of cargo-carrying 
vessels in the hope that a sufl&cient number of 
them would escape the U-boats to insure the 
carrying of adequate food and supplies to France 
and the British Isles. The view was taken that, 
while the ship-building programme was being 
carried out — there was of course no idea of not 
furthering the policy embodied in the plea of 
the British statesman for ships, ships and yet 
more ships — means should be taken of driving 
the submarine from the seas. 

We held the attitude that the nation which 



79 



80 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

had given to the world a weapon so formidable 
as the undersea fighter had within it the ability 
to devise a means of combating it successfully. 
And, as a matter of fact, long before we went 
into the conflict the Navy Department had 
not ignored consideration of ways and means 
in this respect. As a consequence, when the 
British and French War Commissions arrived 
in this country they found our naval officers 
bristling with ideas, some of them apparently 
so feasible that the British naval representatives 
were both pleased and astonished. 

We do not know all that passed between the 
Americans and the British with regard to the 
submarine, but this we do know: that the Brit- 
ish went back to England with a greater re- 
spect for our powers of constructive thought 
than they had when they reached this coun- 
try. Among some of the early suggestions was 
the sowing of contact mines in waters through 
which the submarines would be obliged to pass 
in leaving and entering their bases. Then there 
was the scheme of protecting vessels in groups, 
and other excellent ideas which were soon put 
into effect. 



DESTROYERS TO EUROPE 81 

Immediately after the signing of the war 
resolution by President Wilson the Navy De- 
partment proceeded to put various plans into 
execution. At 9.30 o'clock one warm April 
night commanders of various destroyers in 
service along the coast received orders to pro- 
ceed at daylight to the home navy-yards and 
fit out with all despatch for distant service. 
None of the officers knew what was ahead, not 
definitely, that is; but all knew that the future 
held action of vital sort and with all steam the 
venomous gray destroyers were soon darting 
up and down the coast toward their various 
navy-yards, at Boston, New York, and else- 
where. 

Arriving here, the vessels went at once into 
dry dock while a force of men who were in wait- 
ing proceeded to clean and paint the hulls, while 
stores and provisions to last three months were 
assembled. In a few days the flotilla set forth. 
No commander knew where he was going. In- 
structions were to proceed to a point fifty miles 
east of Cape Cod, and there to open sealed in- 
structions. One may imagine the thoughts of 
the officers and crews of the sea-fighters — which 



82 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

above all other craft had signally demonstrated 
the fact that they and they alone were quali- 
fied to bring the fear of God, as the navy saying 
is, to the Germans — as they ploughed through 
the seas to the point where orders might be 
opened and the way ahead made clear. 

"And when," said a destroyer commander, 
speaking of that trip, "I got to the designated 
point at midnight, I opened my orders and 
found that we were to make for Queenstown. 
You may be sure I breathed a fervent cheer, 
for I had been itching for a crack at the sub 
ever since certain events off Nantucket the 
preceding fall." 

The flotilla took ten days in making the 
journey, the time thus consumed being due to* 
a southeast gale which accompanied the boats 
for the first seven days of the journey. There 
were various incidents, but nothing of the dra- 
matic save the picking up and escorting of the 
big British liner Adriatic, and later the meeting 
300 miles off the Irish coast of the brave little 
British destroyer Mary Rose, which had been 
sent out to meet the Americans. The Mary 
Rose, by the way, was sunk three months later 



AT QUEENSTOWN 83 

by a German raider. The commander of the 
Mary Rose assured the Americans that they 
would be welcome and that their co-operation 
would be highly appreciated. 

One may fancy so. Things were looking 
exceedingly black about that time. In the 
previous three weeks submarines had sunk 
152 British merchant vessels, and patrol-vessels 
each day were bringing in survivors of the va- 
rious victims. It was a situation which could 
not go on if the British cause were not to be 
very seriously injured. The question of sup- 
plies, food, munitions, and the like, for which 
both France and England were relying upon the 
United States to furnish, was looming vitally. 
This country had the things to send, all cargoes, 
of all sorts. But to send them to the war zone 
•and then have them lost was a heart-breaking 
situation for every one concerned. 

One thus is able to imagine the emotions 
with which the British at Queenstown received 
our flotilla when it came in from the sea on 
the morning of May 13. Motion pictures of 
this eventful arrival have been shown in this 
country, with the result that we who were not 



84 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

there have an impression of a crowded water- 
front, of American flags flying everywhere, of 
the American commander leaving his vessel 
and going ashore to call upon the British com- 
mander Admiral Sir Lewis Bayly and the Hon- 
orable Wesley Frost, the American Consul at 
Queenstown. The destroyers had steamed into 
the harbor in a long line and with great pre- 
cision came to a stop at the designated moor- 
ings. All this, as said, we have seen on the film, 
as we have seen the British and American of- 
ficers going through the motions of formal felici- 
tation. What was said, however, came to us 
through another medium. Admiral Bayly, after 
the formal ceremony of greeting was ended, said 
with British directness: 

"When will you be ready for business?" 

The reply was prompt: 

"We can start at once, sir." 

Admiral Bayly did not attempt to conceal 
his surprise, but he made no comment until 
after he had completed a tour of the various 
American craft. Then he turned to the Amer- 
ican commander: 

"You were right about being prepared." 



CAPTAIN EVANS 85 

"Yes," returned the American; "we made 
preparations in the course of the trip over. That 
is why we are ready." 

"Very good," smiled the British commander. 
"You are a fine body of men and your boats 
look just as fit." As a matter of fact, while all 
equipment was found to be in excellent con- 
dition and the men ready and eager to go out 
after submarines, it was deemed best to send 
one or two of the craft to dry dock to have their 
hulls inspected and, if necessary, shorn of all 
barnacles or other marine growth that might 
have become attached to the plating on the 
journey across. 

In the meantime had occurred a very pretty 
incident which is now one of the stock stories 
in the ward-rooms of British and American 
sea-fighters in European waters. If seems that 
not long before the destroyers were due to ar- 
rive Captain Edward R. G. R. Evans, C. B., 
who was second in command of the Scott Ant- 
arctic Expedition, came up the Thames on board 
his battered destroyer, the Broke, Now, the 
Broke on the night of April 20, off Dover, had 
been engaged in an action which stands as one 



86 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

of the glorious achievements at arms in the 
annals of sea-fighting. The Broke that night 
was attacked by six German destroyers and, 
after a battle characterized by bulwark rasping 
against bulwark, by boarding-parties, hand-to- 
hand fighting, and all the elements that make 
the pages of Mayne Reid thrilling, defeated 
the six destroyers and proceeded to port with 
flags flying. 

With all this in mind the admiralty decided 
to pay the Americans the distinguished com- 
pliment of attaching Captain Evans to the 
American flag-ship as a sort of liaison officer. 
So when the American flotilla was reported, 
the British hero set forth and in good time 
boarded the flag-ship of the flotilla. He was 
accompanied by a young aide, and both were 
received with all courtesy by the American 
commander. But the British aide could see 
that the American had not associated his visitor 
with the man whose laurels were still fresh not 
only as an explorer but as a fighter. 

There was talk of quarters for Captain 
Evans, and the American commander seemed 
doubtful just where to put his guest. Finally 



HOSPITALITY 87 

he sent the British officer below with a lieu- 
tenant to see what could be done. When the 
two had disappeared Evans's aide turned to 
the American commander. 

"I don't think," he said, flushing rather dif- 
fidently, that you quite grasped just who you 
have on board, and then . with great distinct- 
ness he added: "He is R. G. R,. Evans. 
He " 

There came an exclamation from the Amer- 
ican, and stepping forward he seized the young 
officer by the shoulders. 

"Do you mean to say that he is Evans of 
the Broke ? " he cried. 

As the Briton nodded and was about to speak, 
the American leaped from his side, made the 
companion-ladder, and fairly tumbled below. 
Approaching Captain Evans, he said: 

"Captain Evans, my apologies; I didn't quite 
place you at first. I merely wish to tell you 
now not to worry about quarters. I say this 
because you are going to have my bunk — and 
I — I am going to sleep on the floor." 

And here is a little incident which occurred 
when the destroyers picked up and escorted 



88 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

the Adriatic of the White Star Line. As may 
be imagined, the Americans on board were de- 
lighted to see a destroyer with an American 
flag darting about the great vessel like a por- 
poise, while the British appreciated to the full 
the significance of the occasion — so much so 
that the following message was formulated and 
wirelessed to the destroyer: 

"British passengers on board a steamship 
bound for a British port under the protection of 
an American torpedo-boat destroyer send their 
hearty greetings to her commander and her offi- 
cers and crew and desire to express their keen 
appreciation of this practical co-operation be- 
tween the government and people of the United 
States and the British Empire who are now 
fighting together for the freedom of the seas." 

One may imagine with what emotions the 
officers and men of the American war-ship, 
bound for duty in enemy seas and at the very 
outset having a great greyhound intrusted to 
their care, received this glowing despatch. 

There were many functions attending the 
arrival of the Americans at Queenstown, aside 
from those already set forth. Many of the 



UP THE RIVER LEE 89 

seamen were granted shore-leave and were 
immediately captured by the townspeople, who 
took them to their homes and entertained most 
lavishly. They were the first American naval 
men that the Queenstowners had seen at close 
quarters in years, and the bluejackets were 
bombarded with questions. 

And while the jackies were thus being treated 
the American officers made a memorable visit 
to Cork. They journeyed up the River Lee in 
an admiral's barge accompanied by Captain 
Evans. At the Cork custom-house they were 
met by distinguished military officers, by the 
lord-lieutenant of the county, and by the lord 
mayor of Cork. It was a most memorable 
occasion, and when they returned they found 
the British and American seamen on such good 
terms that the two bodies had already tried 
each other out in friendly fisticuffs, the net 
results being common respect one for the other. 

Announcement of the arrival of the Amer- 
ican vessels was made by the British Admiralty, 
the American Navy Department, with a modest 
reticence which ever since has been charac- 
teristic, saying nothing until the time came to 



90 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

confirm the admiralty's statement. In doing 
this Secretary Daniels announced that as a 
matter of fact an American flotilla of destroyers 
had arrived at an English port on May 4, and 
the vessels thereof engaged in the work of sub- 
marine hunting in both the Atlantic and in 
co-operation with the French in the Mediter- 
ranean. About the same time it was stated 
that a body of naval aviators, the first Amer- 
ican fighting-men to serve from the shore, had 
been landed in England. 

Soon after this announcement came another 
from Washington, giving an interchange of 
wireless amenities between Vice-Admiral Sir 
David Beatty, commander of the British Grand 
Fleet, to Rear-Admiral Henry T. Mayo, com- 
manding the United States Atlantic Fleet: 

"The Grand Fleet rejoices that the Atlantic 
Fleet will share in preserving the liberties of the 
world and maintaining the chivalry of the sea." 

And Admiral Mayo's reply: 

"The United States Atlantic Fleet appre- 
ciates the message from the British Fleet, and 
welcomes opportunities for work with the 
British Fleet for the freedom of the seas." 



REDUCED LOSSES 91 

In confirming the British announcement of 
the arrival of the flotilla at Queenstown, Secre- 
tary Daniels said: 

"It has been the purpose of the United States 
Navy to give the largest measure of assistance 
to other countries at war with Germany that 
is consistent with the full and complete pro- 
tection of our own coast and territorial waters." 

Within a week after the arrival of our flotilla 
at Queenstown, the vessels thereof ranging the 
seas side by side with the British, submarine 
losses showed a marked reduction, and it was 
even more marked the second week of our co- 
operation. It was also stated that more sub- 
marines had been sunk in the week of May 
12 than in the previous month. 

In preparing for co-operation with the 
British destroyers, the American officers re- 
ceived lectures on the subject of effective sub- 
marine fighting, while depth-bombs and ap- 
pliances for releasing them were supplied to 
the American boats, and all surplus gear and 
appurtenances of various sorts were taken from 
the American vessels and stored ashore. 

It was noted as a curious fact that the United 



92 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

States Navy had really been a warm-weather 
navy. The ships were sent south in winter 
for drills and target practice, usually in Guan- 
tanamo Bay; in the spring they engaged in 
manoeuvres off the Virginia Capes, and in 
summer went to Newport, Provincetown, and 
other New England points. Again, life in a 
destroyer on the wintry Atlantic was not the 
most comfortable life in the world. There were 
cold fogs, icy winds and fearful storms in the 
war zone, and the thin steel hulls of the de- 
stroyers offered little in the way of creature 
comforts. This fact perhaps gave color to the 
report from Queenstown that our men were 
prepared in every respect save that of clothing, 
a statement that was indignantly refuted by the 
Navy Department, and a list of the garments 
furnished the sailors was submitted. It was 
an adequate list and quite effectually silenced 
further rumors on that score. As a matter of 
fact, no complaint ever came from the jackies 
themselves. They had sea-boots, pea-jackets, 
short, heavy double-breasted overcoats, knitted 
watch-caps, heavy woollen socks, jerseys, extra 
jackets of lambskin wool, oil-skins, and navy 



AN UNGALLANT POET 93 

uniform suits — a complete outfit surely. In 
the meantime the young women, elderly women, 
too, of the country were busily engaged in knit- 
ting helmets, sweaters, mittens, and the like. 
Some of the girls, more romantic than others, 
inserted their names and addresses in the ar- 
ticles they sent to the sailors. Here is a little 
jeu d'esprit that one girl received from a sailor 
of Admiral Sims's command: 

"Some sox; some fit ! 
I used one for a helmet. 
And one for a mitt. 
I hope I shall meet you 
When I've done my bit. 
But who in the devil 
Taught you to knit?" 

The reader may be sure that other, many 
other, more appreciative messages were sent 
to the devoted young women of the country, 
and that in many cases interesting correspon- 
dence was opened. 

On May 25, 1917, Admiral Sims cabled to 
Secretary Daniels that Berlin knew of Amer- 
ican plans for sending our destroyers to Europe 
four days before the vessels arrived at Queens- 
town, and that twelve mines had been placed 



94 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

across the entrance to the harbor the day before 
the destroyer flotilla reached their destination. 
The activity of British mine-sweepers prevented 
whatever might have occurred. This gave 
rise to considerable discussion in this country 
as to German spies here, and as an instance of 
their work in keeping in touch with naval af- 
fairs the following story was told in naval circles : 
When the oil-ship Vacuum, with Lieutenant 
Thomas and a naval gun crew on board, sailed 
from this country, the captain had instruc- 
tions where to pick up British destroyers at a 
certain point off the Irish coast. The Vacuum 
arrived at the designated spot, and before the 
war-ships arrived a submarine appeared out of 
the water. 

"I see," said the German commander, ap- 
pearing out of the conning-tower, "that you 
kept your appointment.' ' 

And then the Vacuum was sent to the bottom. 
Later, under the convoy system, submarines 
began to be very wary in the matter of trium- 
phant conversations with officers of merchant- 
men. In fact, this appears to have been the 
last interchange of the sort. 



WORK OF DESTROYERS 95 

Working with the British, the American de- 
stroyers patrolled the seas six days at a stretch, 
each craft being assigned to a certain area, as 
far out as three hundred miles off shore. Re- 
turning to port, the destroyers would lie at their 
moorings two and three days. Later the time 
in port was reduced. But it depended upon 
conditions. The orders to the Americans were: 
first, destroy submarines; second, escort and 
convoy merchant ships; third, save lives. And 
in all three respects the Americans from the 
very outset have so conducted themselves and 
their craft as to earn the highest encomiums 
from the Entente admiralties. 

The Americans entered very heartily into 
their work, and developed ideas of their own, 
some of which the British were very glad to 
adopt. Between the men of the two navies 
there has been the best sort of feeling. 



CHAPTER V 

BRITISH AND AMERICAN DESTROYERS OPERATING HAND IN 
HAND ARRIVAL OF NAVAL COLLIER "jUPITER" SUC- 
CESSFUL TRIP OF TRANSPORTS BEARING UNITED STATES 
SOLDIERS CONVOYED BY NAVAL VESSELS — ATTACK ON 

TRANSPORTS WARDED OFF BY DESTROYERS SECRETARY 

BAKER THANKS SECRETARY DANIELS VISIT TO OUR 

DESTROYER BASE ATTITUDE OF OFFICERS TOWARD MEN 

GENESIS OF THE SUBMARINE THE CONFEDERATE 

SUBMARINE "hUNLEY" 

A CORRESPONDENT who visited the 
British base on the Irish coast a month 
after the arrival of the Americans, found the 
two fleets operating hand in hand and doing 
effective work. With the boats out four and 
five, and then in port coaling and loading sup- 
plies two and three days, the seamen were get- 
ting practically half a day shore-leave every 
week. The seamen endured the routine grind 
of patrol and convoy work, accepting it as the 
price to be paid for the occasional fights with 
submarines. 

An assignment to convoy a liner from home 
is regarded as a choice morsel, and the boats 
that get the job are looked upon as favored 

96 



ADMIRAL SIMS APPRECIATED 97 

craft. The transatlantic passengers invariably 
make a fuss over the Americans, and the inter- 
change of amenities gives our sailors concrete 
evidence of how their work is regarded in this 
country. 

On June 6, 1917, Secretary Daniels, with 
warrantable pride, announced the arrival in a 
French port of the naval collier Jupiter, with 
10,500 tons of wheat and other supplies. The 
Jupiter is nearly as large as a battleship, and 
stands out of the water like a church. Never- 
theless, the collier, completely armed and well 
able to take care of herself, made the trip with- 
out convoy. She was the first electrically pro- 
pelled vessel of large size ever built, and her 
performance was so good that it led to the adop- 
tion of the electric drive for all our new battle- 
ships and cruisers. 

In the meantime, with our destroyers working 
valiantly in the fight against the submarines, 
Admiral Sims, their commander, had made 
himself indispensable to the British Admiralty, 
whose high regard was manifested on June 19, 
when, as already noted, he was appointed to 
take charge of operations of the Allied naval 



98 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

forces in Irish waters while the British com- 
mander-in-chief was absent for a short period. 
Washington had given wide powers to Admiral 
Sims to the end that he might be in a position 
to meet any emergency that might arise. While 
much of his time was spent in Paris and London, 
his home was at the Irish base, a fine old man- 
sion 300 feet above the town, with beautiful 
lawns and gardens, having been turned over to 
him. 

In June of 1917, June 4, it was announced in 
Washington that an American squadron had 
arrived in South American waters in accor- 
dance with the plan of relieving British and 
French cruisers of patrol duty in waters of the 
western hemisphere, merely one more instance 
of the scope of the plans which the Navy De- 
partment had formulated when we entered the 
war. 

On June 25 came word that the first American 
convoy (transports with American troops), un- 
der direction of Rear-Admiral Albert M. Gleaves, 
commander of our convoy system, had arrived 
safely at a port in France. On July 3 the last 
units of ships with supplies and horses reached 



ATTACK ON CONVOY 99 

its destination. The expedition was divided 
into contingents, each contingent including 
troop-ships and an escort of sea-fighters. An 
ocean rendezvous with American destroyers op- 
erating in European waters was arranged, and 
carried out in minutest detail. 

The convoy did not cross the seas without in- 
cident. In the newspapers of July 4 the coun- 
try was electrified by a statement issued by the 
Creel bureau of a rather thrilling combat be- 
tween war-ships attached to the convoy and 
German submarines, in which the U-boat was 
badly worsted. Details were given, and all in 
all the whole affair as presented was calculated 
to give the utmost unction to American pride. 
Next day, however, came a despatch from 
the American flotilla base in British waters 
which set forth that the story of the attack as 
published in the United States was inaccurate. 
There was no submarine attack, said the report, 
and no submarine was seen. One destroyer did 
drop a depth-bomb, but this was merely by way 
of precaution. Quite a stir followed, and it 
was not until Secretary Daniels some time 
later published facts as set forth in a cipher 



100 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

message from Admiral Gleaves that the country 
realized that, while the original account was 
somewhat overdrawn, there was substantial 
ground for the belief that several transports 
had had narrow escapes. To a correspon- 
dent who was on one of the transports we are 
indebted for the following narrative of the 
attack: 

"It was past midnight. The flotilla was 
sweeping through a calm sea miles from the 
point of debarkation, and tense nerves were be- 
ginning to relax. The sky was cloudy and the 
moon obscured, but the phosphorescence of 
water common in these latitudes at this season 
marked the prow and wake of the advancing 
ships with lines of smoky flame. It was this, 
perhaps, that saved us from disaster — this and 
the keenness of American eyes, and the straight- 
ness of American shooting. From the high- 
flung superstructure of a big ship one of the 
eager lookouts noted an unwonted line of shin- 
ing foam on the port bow. In a second he re- 
alized that here at last was the reality of peril. 
It could be nothing else than the periscope of a 
submarine. The Germans were not less swift 



IN ACTION 101 

in action. Almost at the moment that the 
alarm was given a gleaming line of bubbles, 
scarcely twenty feet from the bow of one of the 
transports wherein thousands were sleeping, an- 
nounced the torpedo with its fatal burden of 
explosive. Then 'hell broke loose.' Firing ev- 
ery gun available, the big ship swung on a 
wide circle out of line to the left. A smaller 
war-ship slipped into the place of the big fighter, 
driving shells into the sea. Whether any landed 
or not may not be said. The Germans fired 
three, if not four, torpedoes. It was God's 
mercy that they all went astray among so many 
of our ships. The whole business lasted only 
a minute and a half. I know, because one of 
those Easterners from somewhere up in Maine 
coolly timed the mix-up with his stop-watch. 
But believe me, it added more than that time 
to my life. The second attack occurred next 
morning. Every living soul on the transports 
had been thrilled by the news of the night's 
events, and from early hours the decks were 
lined with amateur lookouts. The morning was 
fine, and a light breeze rippled up wavelets that 
twinkled in the sunlight. Suddenly about 10.30 



102 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

o'clock there came a wild yell from one of the 
leading transports. Though the jackies affect 
to dispute it, I was assured that it was from a 
far-sighted youngster from Arizona, who first 
descried and then announced the deadly line 
of bubbles. No periscope was visible this time, 
and for the first moment those on the bridges of 
the destroyers were incredulous. Then the un- 
mistakable bubble lines clean across the bows 
put the certainty of danger beyond question. 
Once again fortune favored us. The submarine 
was in front instead of in the deadliest position 
on the flank toward the rear. Perhaps the 
U-boat commander was rattled by the magni- 
tude of his opportunity. Perhaps one of his 
excited pirates let go too soon. Anyway, it is 
agreed by experts that he would have been far 
more dangerous had he waited unseen until 
part of the flotilla at least had passed beyond 
him. 

"Dearly did the Germans pay for their error. 
Like a striking rattlesnake, one of our destroy- 
ers darted between a couple of transports. 
Her nose was so deep in the sea as to be almost 
buried, while a great wave at the stern threw 



ONE MORE "SUB" GONE 103 

a shower of spray on the soldiers massed at the 
transport's bow. That destroyer ran right 
along the line of bubbles like a hound following 
a trail, and when it came to the spot where the 
commander estimated the submarine must be 
lurking, he released a depth-bomb. A column 
of smoke and foam rose fifty feet in the air, 
and the destroyer herself rose half out of the 
water under the shock of the explosion. It is 
said that in the midst of the column of water 
were seen fragments of steel and wood, and oil 
also was reported on the water. This meant 
that at least one submarine had paid the su- 
preme price for the spread of kultur on the high 
seas." 

As in all thrilling incidents of the sort, there 
was a note of comedy. It was supplied by a 
negro roustabout on one of the large transports. 
This darky throughout the trip had been very 
fearful of submarines, and when the actual mo- 
ment of danger came he acted upon a pre- 
determined course, and shinned up the main- 
mast as though Old Nick himself were at his 
heels. When the excitement was over an offi- 
cer called up to him: 



104 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

"Hello, up there; come down. It's all over." 

"Me come down," came the voice from on 
high. "Mistah officah, I ain't nevah gwine to 
come down; no suh. De place fo man is on de 
dry land, yas suh. Ocean wa'nt nevah made 
for man; de ocean's fo fishes, dat's all. I'm 
gwine to stay up heah until I see de land. Den 
I'se gwine to jump." 

History fails to record how long he remained 
in his retreat. Probably until he became hungry. 

This, then, appears to be what happened to 
our first convoy. That there was an attack 
upon the convoy by submarines in force, as set 
forth in the original statement from Washington, 
now seems altogether unlikely, and whether our 
destroyers sunk one or more of the undersea 
assailants is a matter of opinion. It does, how- 
ever, seem likely that the one waging the second 
attack was accounted for. 

The War Department was not slow to recog- 
nize the effectiveness with which our navy had 
transported the first oversea expedition to France 
as the following message from Secretary of 
War Newton D. Baker to Secretary Daniels 
will show. 



FROM SECRETARY BAKER 105 

"War Department, 

"Washington, July 3. 

"Word has just come to the War Department 
that the last ships conveying Gen. Pershing's 
expeditionary force arrived safely to-day. As 
you know, the Navy Department assumed the 
responsibility for the safety of these ships on 
the sea and through the danger zone. The 
ships themselves and their convoys were in the 
hands of the navy, and now that they have ar- 
rived and carried without the loss of a man our 
soldiers who are first to represent America in 
the battle for Democracy, I beg leave to tender 
to you, to the admiral, and to the navy the 
hearty thanks of the War Department and of 
the army. This splendid achievement is an 
auspicious beginning, and it has been character- 
ized throughout by the most cordial and effec- 
tive co-operation between the two military 
services. 

"Cordially yours, 

"Newton D. Baker." 

In the meantime Americans living in England 
had organized to do everything in their power 



106 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

to make the lives of the seamen of the destroyer 
fleet comfortable. Plans were at once formu- 
lated and work begun on a club, the United 
States Naval Men's Club at the American base. 
This club, which is now completed, contains 
dormitories, shower-baths, a canteen, and a bil- 
liard room with two pool-tables. There is an 
auditorium for moving-picture shows and other 
entertainments, reading-rooms, and in fact ev- 
erything that would tend to make the men 
feel at home and divert their leisure hours. 

A correspondent for the Associated Press, who 
visited the club when it was completed, has testi- 
fied to its great attractiveness, and from his 
pen also has come the most effective description 
of our destroyers as they return to their base 
from duty in the North Sea. One destroyer 
which he inspected had had the good fortune 
to be able to bring back the crews of two 
torpedoed merchantmen. The mariners were 
picked up on the fourth day out, and had the 
unique experience of joining in a lookout for 
their undoers before the destroyer returned to its 
base. Despite her battles with heavy seas and 
high winds, the destroyer was as fit as any of her 



OUR DESTROYERS 107 

sister craft lying at anchor near by. Her brass- 
work glistened in the sunshine, and her decks 
were as clean as a good housewife's kitchen. 
The crew, a majority of them mere boys, were 
going about their work with every manifesta- 
tion of contentment. 

"They are," observed the commander, "the 
most alert sailors in the world." The destroyer 
carried five 4 -inch guns, the type most used 
on destroyers. Ten feet behind the guns were 
cases of shells, each shell weighing sixty pounds. 
When firing upon a submarine the shells are 
passed by hand to the gunners — no small task 
when the sea is heavy. At the gun the gunner 
is equipped with a head-gear, like that worn 
by telephone girls, through which he receives 
sighting directions from the officer on the bridge. 
Speaking-tubes also convey messages from the 
bridge to the gunners. 

These "voice-tubes," as they are called, run 
to all the guns, but take the most circuitous 
routes, running way below deck in order that 
damage by shell-fire to the upper part of the 
vessel might not affect communication from the 
bridge to the gunners. On different parts of 



108 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

the deck were three canvas-covered boxes, each 
containing six loaded rifles, eighteen in all. 
These were for use against boarding-parties. 

The vessel also contained numerous torpedo- 
tubes, always loaded. The destroyer registered 
about a thousand tons, and carried a crew of 
ninety -five men, who were reported as "a great 
happy family." The commanding officer said 
that there was surprisingly little homesickness 
among the men, many of whom had never be- 
fore been so far from their native land. 

"We invite questions and suggestions from 
our men," said one of the officers to the corre- 
spondent. "We want them to feel that no one 
is ever too old to learn." 

The seamen sleep on berths suspended from 
the steel walls of the destroyers, berths which, 
when not in use, can be closed very much after 
the manner of a folding bed. When "sub- 
marined" crews are rescued the sailors will- 
ingly give up their comfortable berths and do 
everything else in their power to make the 
shipwrecked mariners comfortable. The men 
receive their mail from home uncensored. It 
arrives about every ten days in bags sealed in 



A GREAT GAME 109 

the United States. Their own letters, how- 
ever, are censored, not only by an officer aboard 
ship, but by a British censor. However, there 
has been little or no complaint by the men on 
the ground of being unable to say what they 
wish to their loved ones. 

"The men," wrote an officer recently, "look 
upon submarine- hunting as a great game. The 
only time they are discontented is when a situa- 
tion which looks like an approaching fight re- 
solves itself into nothing. The seas of the war 
zone are, of course, filled with all sorts of flot- 
sam and jetsam, and very often that which ap- 
pears to be a periscope is nothing of the sort. 
But when a real one comes — then the men ac- 
cept it as a reward." 

In view of all that has been said thus far and 
remains to be said concerning the submarine, 
it might be well to digress for a moment and 
devote the remainder of this chapter to a con- 
sideration of the undersea fighter, its genesis, 
what it now is, and what it has accomplished. 
We all know that the submarine was given to 
the world by an American inventor — that is to 



110 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

say, the submarine in very much the form that 
we know it to-day, the effective, practical sub- 
marine. The writer recalls witnessing experi- 
ments more than twenty years ago on the 
Holland submarine — the first modern subma- 
rine type — and he recalls how closely it was 
guarded in the early days of 1898, when it lay 
at Elizabethport and the Spanish war-ship 
Viscaya, Captain Eulate, lay in our harbor. 
This was a month or so after the destruction of 
the battleship Maine in Havana Harbor, and 
threats against the Spanish had led, among 
other precautions, to an armed guard about 
the Holland lest some excitable person take her 
out and do damage to the Viscaya. There was 
no real danger, of course, that this would hap- 
pen ; it merely tends to show the state of public 
mind. 

Well, in any event, the Holland, and improved 
undersea craft subsequently developed, con- 
verted the seemingly impossible into the actual. 
To an Englishman, William Bourne, a seaman- 
gunner must be credited the first concrete 
exposition of the possibilities of an undersea 
fighter. His book, "Inventions or Devices," 



ORIGINAL SUBMARINE 111 

published in 1578, contains a comprehensive 
description of the essential characteristics of 
the undersea boat as they are applied to-day. 
From the days of the sixteenth century on 
down through the years to the present time, 
submarine construction and navigation have 
passed through various stages of development. 
Captain Thomas A. Kearney, U. S. N., in an 
interesting monograph published through the 
United States Naval Institute at Annapolis, 
says that of the early American inventors, 
particular mention should be made of the work 
of David Bushnell and Robert Fulton, both of 
whom have been termed the " father of the 
submarine." Bushnell's boat, completed in 
1775-6, was much in advance of anything in its 
class at the time. The boat, which was, of 
course, water-tight, was sufficiently commodious 
to contain the operator and a sufficient amount 
of air to support him for thirty minutes. Water 
was admitted into a tank for the purpose of 
descending and two brass force-pumps ejected 
the water when the operator wished to rise. 
Propulsion was by an oar astern, working as 
the propeller of a vessel works to-day. Prac- 



112 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

tically Bushnell in one attempt to destroy a 
British war-ship in the Hudson River was able 
to get under the British frigate Eagle without 
detection, but was unable to attach the mine 
which the boat carried. 

Fulton's inventive genius directed toward a 
submarine took tangible shape in 1800 when 
the French Government built the Nautilus 
in accordance with his plans. Both France 
and the United States carried on experimental 
work with Fulton's designs, under his personal 
supervision, but there is no record of any marked 
achievement. 

The first submarine within the memory of 
men living to-day, the first practical, albeit 
crude, undersea boat, was the H. L. Hunley, 
built at Mobile, Ala., under the auspices of 
the Confederate Navy and brought from that 
port to Charleston on flat cars for the purpose 
of trying to break the blockade of that port by 
Federal war-ships. The Hunley was about forty 
feet long, six in diameter, and shaped like a 
cigar. Its motive power came from seven 
men turning cranks attached to the propeller- 
shaft. When working their hardest these men 



THE HUNLEY 113 

could drive the boat at a speed of about four 
miles an hour. 

Several attempts to use the Hunley were un- 
successful, each time it sank, drowning its 
crew of from eight to ten men. These experi- 
ments, which were carried on in shallow water 
at Charleston, mark one of the bright pages in 
our seafaring annals, as crew after crew went 
into the boat facing practically certain death to 
the end that the craft might be made effective. 
Each time the vessel sank she was raised, the 
dead crew taken out, and a new experiment 
with a new crew made. In all thirty- three 
men were sacrificed before it was finally decided 
that the boat could make her way out to the 
blockading line. It was on the night of Febru- 
ary 17, 1864, that the Hunley set out on her last 
journey. The vessel submerged, reached the 
side of the United States steamship Housatonic, 
and successfully exploded a mine against the 
hull of the Federal war-ship, sending her to 
the bottom. 

But in the explosion the submersible herself 
was sunk and all on board were lost. The 
commander of the expedition was Lieutenant 



114 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

George E. Dixon, of Alabama, who with his 
crew well appreciated their danger. It is sup- 
posed that the Hunley was drawn down in the 
suction of the sinking war-ship; she could not 
arise from the vortex, and that was the last 
of her and of her brave crew. The North was 
tremendously excited over the incident and the 
South elated, but no other ship was attacked 
from beneath the water in the course of the 
war. 

Holland's boat, built in 1877, was the first 
to use a gas-engine as a propulsive medium, 
but it was not until the final adoption of the 
gas-engine for surface work, followed later by 
the internal-combustion gasolene-engine and 
the use of electric storage-battery for subsur- 
face work, as well as the invention of the peri- 
scope and various other devices, that the sub- 
marine was developed to a present state of 
effectiveness, which sees it crossing the Atlantic 
from Germany, operating off our shores and 
returning to Germany without being obliged to 
put into port; which, also, sees it capable of 
navigating under water at a speed of from seven 
to nine knots, with torpedoes ready for use in 



BATTLESHIP STILL SUPREME 115 

the tubes and guns of effective caliber mounted 
on deck. It has, indeed, been asserted that 
the airplane and the submarine have relegated 
the battleship to the limbo of desuetude; but 
as to that the continued control of the seas by 
Great Britain with her immense battle-fleet, 
supplemented by our tremendous engines of 
war, certainly argues for no such theory. What 
the future may bring forth in the way of sub- 
marines, armored and of great size, no man 
may say. But at present the submarine, while 
tremendously effective, has not done away with 
the battleship as a mighty element in the theory 
of sea power. 

As to life on a submersible, let us construct 
from material which has come to us from vari- 
ous sources in the past three years a little story 
which will give a better knowledge of the work- 
ings of the German undersea boat than many 
pages of technical description would do. An 
undertaking of the sort will be the more valu- 
able because we of the Allies are inclined to 
consider the submarine problem only in relation 
to our side of the case, whereas the fact is that 
the submarine operates under great difficulties 



116 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

and dangers, and in an ever-increasing degree 
leaves port never to be heard from again. We 
may, then, begin the following chapter with a 
scene in Kiel, Zeebrugge, or any German sub- 
marine base. 



CHAPTER VI 

ON A GERMAN SUBMARINE— FIGHT WITH A DESTROYER — 
PERISCOPE HIT — RECORD OF THE SUBMARINE IN THIS 

WAR — DAWNING FAILURE OF THE UNDERSEA BOAT 

FIGURES ISSUED BY THE BRITISH ADMIRALTY PROOF 

OF DECLINE— OUR NAVY'S PART IN THIS ACHIEVEMENT 

A FIRST lieutenant with acting rank of 
commander takes the order in the gray 
dawn of a February day. The hulk of an old 
corvette with the Iron Cross of 1870 on her 
stubby foremast is his quarters in port, and 
on the corvette's deck he is presently saluted 
by his first engineer and the officer of the watch. 
On the pier the crew of the U-47H await him. 
At their feet the narrow gray submarine lies 
alongside, straining a little at her cables. 

"Well, we've got our orders at last," begins 
the commander, addressing his crew of thirty, 
and the crew look solemn. For this is the 
U-473^'s first experience of active service. She 
has done nothing save trial trips hitherto and 
has just been overhauled for her first fighting 
cruise. Her commander snaps out a number of 

117 



118 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

orders. Provisions are to be taken "up to the 
neck." Fresh water is to be put aboard, and 
engine-room supplies to be supplemented. 

A mere plank is the gangway to the little 
vessel. As the commander, followed by his 
officers, comes aboard, a sailor hands to each 
of the officers a ball of cotton waste, the one 
article aboard a submarine which never leaves 
an officer's hands. For of all oily, grimy, 
greasy places the inside of the submarine is 
supreme. The steel walls, the doors, the com- 
panion-ladders all sweat oil, and the hands must 
be wiped dry at every touch. ThrouglTa nar- 
row hole aft the commander descends by a 
straight iron ladder into a misty region whose 
only light comes from electric glow-lamps. 
The air reeks with the smell of oil. Here is the 
engine-room and, stifling as the atmosphere is 
with the hatches up, it is as nothing compared 
to what the men have to breathe when every- 
thing is hermetically sealed. 

Here are slung hammocks, where men of one 
engine-watch sleep while their comrades move 
about the humming, purring apartment, bump- 
ing the sleepers with their heads and elbows. 



IN A SUBMARINE 119 

But little things like that do not make for 
wakefulness on a submarine. The apartment 
or vault is about ten feet long; standing in the 
middle, a man by stretching out his arms may 
easily have his fingers in contact with the steel 
walls on either side. Overhead is a network 
of wires, while all about there is a maze of 
levers, throttles, wheels, and various mechani- 
cal appliances that are the dismay of all but 
the mind specially trained in submarine opera- 
tion. 

The commander very minutely inspects every- 
thing; a flaw will mean a long sleep on the 
bottom, thirty men dead. Everything is tested. 
Then, satisfied, the commander creeps through 
a hole into the central control-station, w T here 
the chief engineer is at his post. The engineer 
is an extraordinary individual; the life of the 
boat and its effectiveness are in his care. There 
must be lightning repairs when anything goes 
wrong on an undersea craft, and in all respects 
the chief's touch must be that of a magician. 

Exchanging a word or two with the chief 
engineer, the commander continues his way to 
the torpedo-chamber where the deadly "silver- 



120 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

fish," as the Germans have named the hideous 
projectiles, lie. Perhaps he may stroke their 
gleaming backs lovingly; one may not account 
for the loves of a submarine commander. The 
second-in-command, in charge of the armament, 
joins him in the torpedo-room and receives 
final instructions regarding the torpedo and the 
stowing of other explosives. Forward is another 
narrow steel chamber, and next to it is a place 
like a cupboard where the cook has just room 
to stand in front of his doll's-house galley-stove. 
It is an electric cooker, of course. Housewives 
who operate kitchenettes in Manhattan will 
appreciate the amount of room which the cook 
has. And, by the way, this being a German 
submarine, the oily odors, the smell of grease, 
and the like are complicated by an all -pervad- 
ing smell of cabbage and coffee. Two little 
cabins, the size of a clothes-chest, accommo- 
date the deck and engine-rooms officers — two in 
each. Then there is a little box-cabin for the 
commander. 

As the sun rises higher the commander goes 
into his cabin and soon after emerges on deck. 
His coat and trousers are of black leather lined 



OUT FOR PREY 121 

with wool, a protection against oil, cold, and 
wet weather. The crew are at their stations. 

"Machines clear," comes a voice from the 
control-station. 

"Clear ship," comes the order from the 
bridge, followed by "Cast off." 

The cables hiss through the water and slap 
on the landing-stage; the sound of purring 
fills the submarine which glides slowly into 
open water. Into the bay comes another 
U-boat. Stories of her feat in sinking a steam- 
ship loaded with mutton for England has 
preceded her. There has been loss of life con- 
nected with that sinking, but this makes no 
difference to the Teutonic mind, and the officer 
of the U-47^2 shouts his congratulations. 

Now the submarine is out in the open sea, 
the waves are heavy and the vessel rolls un- 
comfortably. The craft, it may be remarked, 
is not the craft for a pleasant sea-voyage. The 
two officers hanging onto the rails turn their 
eyes seaward. The weather increases in sever- 
ity. The officers are lashed to the bridge. 
There they must stay; while the boat plies the 
surface the bridge must not be left by the com- 



122 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

mander and his assistant. Sometimes they re- 
main thus on duty two and three days. Food 
is carried to them and they eat it as they stand. 

It may be that the commander is trying to 
balance a plate of heavy German soup in his 
hand as a cry comes from a lookout. 

"Smoke on the horizon, off the port bow, sir." 

The commander withdraws from his food, 
shouts an order and an electric alarm sounds 
inside the hull. The ship buzzes with activity. 
The guns on deck are hastily housed. Bridge 
appurtenances are housed also, and sailors dive 
down through the deck-holes. The commander 
follows. Water begins to gurgle into the bal- 
last-tanks while the crew seal every opening. 
Down goes the U-473^ until only her periscope 
shows, a periscope painted sea-green and white 
— camouflaged. The eyes of the watch-officer 
are glued to the periscope. 

"She is a Dutchman, sir," he says at length. 
The commander steps to the periscope and 
takes a look. The Dutchman has no wireless 
and is bound for some continental port. It is 
not wise to sink every Dutch boat one meets — 
although German submarines have sunk a 



IN THE NORTH SEA US 

sufficient number of them, in all conscience. 
At all events, the steamship goes in peace and 
the submarine comes to the surface. The 
commander is glad, because electric power 
must be used when the vessel is moving under 
water and there must be no waste of this essen- 
tial element. 

So the submarine proceeds on her way, 
wallowing and tumbling through the heavy 
graybacks of the North Sea. At length after 
fifty-four hours the necessity of sleep becomes 
apparent. The ballast-tanks are filled and the 
craft slowly descends to the sandy bottom of 
the sea. It is desirable that the crew go to 
sleep as quickly as possible, because when men 
are asleep they use less of the priceless supply 
of oxygen which is consumed when the boat 
is under water. However, the commander al- 
lows the men from half an hour to an hour for 
music and singing. The phonograph is turned 
on and there on the bottom of the North Sea the 
latest songs of Berlin are ground out while the 
crew sit about, perhaps joining in the choruses — 
they sang more in the early days of the war 
than they do to-day — while the officers sit 



124 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

around their mess-table and indulge in a few 
social words before they retire. 

In the morning water from the tanks is ex- 
pelled and the boat rises to greet a smiling 
sea. Also to greet a grim destroyer. The 
war-ship sees her as she comes up from a dis- 
tance of perhaps a mile away. All steam is 
crowded on while the leaden-gray fighter — the 
one craft that the submarine fears — makes 
for her prey. Sharp orders ring through the 
U-boat. The tanks are again filled, and while 
the commander storms and ejaculates, every- 
thing is made tight and the vessel sinks beneath 
the surface. The electric-motors are started 
and the submarine proceeds under water in a 
direction previously determined, reckoned in 
relation to the course of the approaching 
destroyer. 

Presently comes a dull explosion. The de- 
stroyer arriving over the spot where the under- 
sea boat was last seen, has dropped a depth- 
bomb, which has exploded under the surface 
at a predetermined depth. The submarine 
commander grins. The bomb was too far 
away to do damage, although the craft has 



A CATTLE-SHIP 125 

trembled under the shock. There comes an- 
other shock, this time not so palpable. Eventu- 
ally all is quiet. 

For an hour the submarine proceeds blindly 
under water, and then cautiously her periscope 
is thrust above the surface. Nothing in sight. 
Orders sound through the vessel and she rises 
to the surface. She could have remained be- 
low, running under full headway, for six hours 
before coming to the surface. So the day goes 
on. Toward nightfall smoke again is seen on 
the horizon. It proves to be a large freighter 
ladened, apparently, with cattle. Two de- 
stroyers are frisking about her, crossing her 
bow, cutting around her stern. The steam- 
ship herself is zigzagging, rendering accurate 
calculations as to her course uncertain. 

By this time, of course, the submarine has 
submerged. The watch-officer and the com- 
mander stand by the periscope, watching the 
approaching craft. The periscope may not be 
left up too long; the watchers on the destroyers 
and on the deck of the vessel, which is armed, 
are likely to spy it at any time. So the periscope 
is alternately run down and run up. The sub- 



126 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

marine has moved so that the steamship will 
pass her so as to present a broadside. Up 
comes the periscope for one last look. The 
observer sees a puff of smoke from the deck of 
a destroyer and a quick splash of water obscures 
the view momentarily. 

"They have seen us and are firing." 

But the steamship is now within a mile, 
within fairly accurate torpedo range. An order 
rolls into the torpedo-room and the crew pre- 
pare for firing. In the meantime a shower of 
shells explode about the periscope. There comes 
a sudden vagueness on the glass into which the 
observer has been gazing. 

"The periscope has been hit." 

Thoughts of launching the torpedo vanish. 
Safety first is now the dominant emotion. 
Additional water flows into the tanks and the 
craft begins to settle. But as she does so there 
is a sudden flood of water into the control- 
room; a hoarse cry goes up from the crew. 
The officers draw their revolvers. Evidently 
the injured periscope has caused a leak. Be- 
fore anything can be done there is a tremendous 
grinding, rending explosion; the thin steel walls 



BOMB DOES ITS WORK 127 

contract under the force of the released energy. 
Above them the destroyer crew gazing eagerly 
at the geyser-like volume of water arising from 
the sea descry pieces of metal, dark objects of 
all sorts. The sea quiets and up from the depths 
arise clouds of oil, spreading slowly over the 
waves. The U-473^ has joined many a nobler 
craft upon the wastes of subaqueous depths. 

But not always has the outcome of a sub- 
marine attack been so fortunate for us. There 
have been thousands of instances — many more 
of them in the past than at present, fortunately 
— where the U-boat returned to her base with a 
murderous story to tell. While it is certain 
that when the totals for the present year are 
compiled an engaging tale of reduced submarine 
effectiveness will be told; yet — as the British 
Government has announced — any effort to mini- 
mize what the submarine has done would work 
chiefly toward the slowing up of our ship-build- 
ing and other activities designed to combat 
directly and indirectly the lethal activities of 
the submarine. And from a naval standpoint 
it is also essential that the effectiveness of the 
undersea craft be fully understood. 



128 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

It was on January 31, 1917, that the German 
Government suddenly cast aside its peace over- 
tures and astonished the world by presenting 
to the United States Government a note to the 
effect that from February 1 sea traffic would be 
stopped with every available weapon and with- 
out further notice in certain specified zones. 
The decree applied to both enemy and neutral 
vessels, although the United States was to be 
permitted to sail one steamship a week in each 
direction, using Falmouth as the port of arrival 
and departure. On February 3 President Wil- 
son appeared before Congress and announced 
that he had severed diplomatic relations with 
Germany on the ground that the imperial gov- 
ernment had deliberately withdrawn its solemn 
assurances in regard to its method of conducting 
warfare against merchant vessels. Two months 
later, April 6, as already noted, Congress de- 
clared that a state of war with Germany existed. 

The German people were led to believe that 
an aggregate of 1,000,000 tons of shipping 
would be destroyed each month and that the 
wastage would bring England to her knees in 
six months and lead to peace. The six months 



TOLL OF SUBMARINES 129 

went by, but the promises of the German 
Government were not fulfilled. Instead the 
submarine war brought the United States into 
the struggle and this, in the words of Philipp 
Scheidemann, leader of the German majority So- 
cialists, has been "the most noticeable result." 
None the less, the submarine, used ruthlessly, 
without restrictions, proved itself to be an unri- 
valled weapon of destruction, difficult to combat 
by reason of its ability to stalk and surprise its 
quarry, while remaining to all intents and pur- 
poses invisible. It has taken heavy toll of 
ships and men, and has caused privation among 
the peoples of the Entente nations; it is still 
unconquered, but month by month of the 
present year its destructiveness has been im- 
paired until now there may be little doubt 
that the number of submarines destroyed every 
month exceeds the number of new submarines 
built, while the production of ship tonnage in 
England and the United States greatly out- 
weighs the losses. In other words, the sub- 
marine, as an element in the settling of the war 
in a manner favorable to Germany, has steadily 
lost influence, and, while it is not now a negligi- 



130 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

ble factor, it is, at least, a minor one and grow- 
ing more so. 

Secret figures of the British Admiralty on sub- 
marine losses and world ship-building issued in 
March, 1918, show that from the outbreak of war, 
in August, 1914, to the end of 1917, the loss 
was 11,827,080 tons. Adding the losses up to 
April of the present year — when the submarine 
sinkings began to show a markedly decreased 
ratio — and we get a total of 13,252,692 tons. 
The world's tonnage construction in the four 
years 1914-17 was 6,809,080 tons. The new 
construction in England and the United States 
for the first quarter of 1918 was 687,221 tons, 
giving a total from the beginning of the war to 
April 1 of 1918, 7,750,000 tons built outside of 
the Central Powers since the beginning of the 
war, with a final deficit of about 5,500,000 tons. 
Of this deficit the year 1917 alone accounted 
for 3,716,000 tons. 

From the last quarter of 1917, however, the 
margin between construction and loss has been 
narrowing steadily. In the first quarter of 
1918 the construction in Great Britain and 
America alone was over 687,000 tons and the 



BEATING THE U-BOAT 131 

losses for the whole world were 1,123,510 tons. 
Here is a deficit for three months — the first 
three months of the present year — of 436,000 
tons, or an annual average of 1,750,000 tons, 
which is a deficit one-half less than that of the 
black year of 1917. When figures at, the end 
of the present year are revealed we may find 
that we have reckoned too little upon the ship- 
building activity of both England and the 
United States, in which event the deficit may 
prove to be even less. But in any event the 
dry figures as set forth are worth perusal inas- 
much as they point not only to the deadly 
effectiveness of the submarine in the first year 
of unrestricted activity, but show how valiantly 
the Allied sea power has dealt with a seemingly 
hopeless situation in the present year. 

In the House of Commons not long ago a 
definite statement that the trend of the sub- 
marine war was favorable to the Allies was 
made. The one specific item given was that 
from January 1 to April 30, 1917, the number 
of unsuccessful attacks upon British steam- 
ships was 172, a weekly average of 10. Last 
year in the ten weeks from the end of February 



132 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

to the end of April there were 175 unsuccessful 
attacks, or a weekly average of 18. This state- 
ment was not exactly illuminating. For of it- 
self a decline in the weekly number of unsuc- 
cessful attacks would imply an increase in the 
effectiveness of the U-boat — which we know is 
not so. What the House of Commons statement 
really meant, of course, was that the number of 
successful attacks had been declining as well as 
the number of unsuccessful attacks — or, in other 
words, that the German sea effort as a whole 
was declining. The U-boats are not hitting 
out as freely as they did a year ago. This 
argues that there are fewer of them than there 
were in 1917. For actual tonnage losses we 
have the word of the French Minister of Marine 
that the sinkings for April, 1918, were 268,000 
tons, whereas in April of the previous year they 
were 800,000 tons, an appalling total. 

"The most conclusive evidence we have seen 
of the failure of the enemy's submarine cam- 
paign is the huge American army now in France, 
and the hundreds of thousands of tons of stores 
brought across the Atlantic," said James Wil- 
son, chairman of the American labor delegation, 
upon his return to England last May from a 



PROGRESS OF U-BOAT FIGHT 133 

visit to France and to the American army. 
"Less than twelve months have passed since 
General Pershing arrived in France with 50 
men. The developments that have taken place 
since seem little short of miraculous. 

Georges Leygues, Minister of Marine of 
France, in testifying before the Chamber of 
Deputies in May said that in November of 1917 
losses through the submarine fell below 400,000 
tons, and since has diminished continuously. 
He said that the number of submarines de- 
stroyed had increased progressively since Jan- 
uary of the present year in such proportion that 
the effectiveness of enemy squadrons cannot be 
maintained at the minimum required by the 
German Government. The number of U-boats 
destroyed in January, February, and March 
was far greater in each month than the num- 
ber constructed in those months. In February 
and April the number of submarines destroyed 
was three less than the total destroyed in the 
previous three months. These results, the min- 
ister declared, were due to the methodical char- 
acter of the war against submarines, to the 
close co-ordination of the Allied navies; to the 
intrepidity and spirit animating the officers and 



134 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

crews of the naval and aerial squadrons, to the 
intensification of the' use of old methods and to 
the employment of new ones. 

We may lay to ourselves the unction that 
the reduced effectiveness of the submarine 
coincided with the entrance of our naval forces 
into the war. This is taking nothing from 
the French, British, and Italian navies; as a 
matter of truth, it would be gross injustice 
to ignore the fact that the large share of the 
great task has been handled through the im- 
mense resources of the British. But the co- 
ordinated effort which began with the arrival 
of our vessels on the other side, the utter free- 
dom with which Secretary Daniels placed our 
resources at the service of the British was in- 
spiring in its moral influences throughout the 
Entente nations, while practically there may be 
no doubt that our craft have played their fair 
share in the activities that have seen the steady 
decline of deadliness on the part of the U-boat. 
We may now consider the methods which our 
navy in collaboration with Allied sea power have 
employed in this combat for the freedom of the 
seas. 



CHAPTER VII 

HOW THE SUBMARINE IS BEING FOUGHT— DESTROYERS 

THE GREAT MENACE BUT NETS, TOO, HAVE PLAYED 

THEHt PART MANY OTHER DEVICES GERMAN OFFICERS 

TELL OF EXPERIENCE ON A SUBMARINE CAUGHT IN A 
NET CHASERS PLAY THEIR PART THE DEPTH-BOMB- 
TRAWLER TRICKS A CAMOUFLAGED SCHOONER WHICH 

TURNED OUT TO BE A TARTAR AIRPLANES GERMAN 

SUBMARINE MEN IN PLAYFUL MOOD 

WHEN the submarines first began their 
attacks upon British war-ships and mer- 
chant vessels the admiralty was faced by a 
state of affairs which had been dealt with more 
or less in the abstract, the only practical lessons 
at hand being those of the Russo-Japanese 
War, which conflict, as a matter of fact, left 
rather an unbalanced showing so far as the 
undersea boat and the surface craft were con- 
cerned; in other words, the submersible had 
by all odds the advantage. 

But England tackled the problem with bull- 
dog energy, utilizing to that end not only her 
immense destroyer fleet, but a myriad of high- 
speed wooden boats, many of which were built 
in this country. They were called submarine- 

135 



136 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

chasers, and while the destroyer and the sea- 
plane, as one of the most effective weapons 
against the submarine, came to the fore, the 
chaser is employed in large numbers by England, 
France, and the United States. 

The great usefulness of the destroyer lay not 
only in patrolling the seas in search of the 
U-boats, but of serving in convoys, protecting 
passenger and freight vessels, and in rescuing 
crews of vessels that had been sunk. There may 
be other methods of reducing Germany's sum 
total of submarines which are equally — if not 
more — effective than the destroyer; but, if so, 
we have not been made aware of that fact. 
Certain it is, however, that aside from the de- 
stroyer, steel nets, fake fishing and merchant 
sailing vessels, seaplanes and chasers have 
played their important part in the fight, while 
such a minor expedient as blinding the eye of 
the periscope by oil spread on the waters has 
not been without avail. 

The United States Navy appears to have 
figured chiefly through its destroyer fleet. It 
has been stated that half the number of sailors 
who were in the navy when we entered the war 



TRAINING SEAMEN 137 

were sent to European waters. The system of 
training them involves a number of training- 
bases in Europe constantly filling up from Ameri- 
can drafts. Each new destroyer that steams 
to Europe from our shores in due course sends 
back some of her men to form a nucleus for the 
crew of another new destroyer turning up in 
American waters. Their places are taken by 
drafts from the training-bases in Europe. The 
destroyer referred to as turning up in this coun- 
try makes up her complement from the battle- 
ships and other naval units here. The training- 
bases in this country are established at Newport, 
Chicago, San Francisco, and Pelham Bay, N. Y. 
Here the men have many months' instruction. 
As their training approaches completion they are 
sent where needed, and thus the work of creating 
an immense army of trained seamen qualified 
for any sort of a task proceeds with mechanical 
precision. 

Submarine hunting is very popular with our 
young jackies, and great is their satisfaction 
when some submarine falls victim to their vig- 
ilance, their courage, and their unerring eyes. 

"But," said a young sea officer not long ago, 



138 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

"the submarine is a difficult bird to catch. He 
holds the advantage over the surface craft. 
He always sees you first. Even when he is on 
the surface he is nearly awash, and when sub- 
merged only his periscope appears above the 
water. The submarine is not after animals of 
our breed — destroyers — and when he can he 
avoids them. We may go several weeks with- 
out putting an eye upon a single U-boat. When 
we do there is action, I can tell you. We start 
for him at full speed, opening up with all our 
guns in the hope of getting in a shot before he 
is able to submerge. But you may believe he 
doesn't take long to get below the surface. 
Anyway, the sub doesn't mind gun-fire much. 
They are afraid of depth charges — bombs which 
are regulated so that they will explode at any 
depth we wish. They contain two or three 
hundred pounds of high explosive, and all 
patrol vessels and destroyers carry them on 
deck and astern. When we see a submarine 
submerge we try to find his wake. Finding it, 
we run over it and drop a bomb. The explosion 
can be felt under water for a distance of several 
miles, but we have to get within ninety feet of 



PATROL DUTY 139 

the hull to damage it. This damage may or 
may not cause the undersea boat to sink. In- 
side of ninety feet, though, there isn't much 
doubt about the sinking. 

"Patrol duty is a grind. The sea where we 
work is filled with wreckage for a distance of 
300 miles off shore, and you can take almost 
any floating object for a periscope. Yes, we 
shoot at everything; ours is not a business in 
which to take chances. Convoy work is more 
interesting and more exciting than the round of 
patrol. The advantage of the convoy over the 
picking up and escorting of a merchantman by 
a patrol-boat is that in the convoy from six to 
ten destroyers can protect from ten to thirty 
merchantmen, while under the patrol system 
one destroyer watches one merchant craft. 
Convoy trips take our destroyers away from 
their base from six to eight days, and they are 
all trying days, especially so in dirty weather. 
On convoy duty no officer, and no man, has his 
clothes off from start to finish. Too many 
things may happen to warrant any sort of un- 
preparedness. Constant readiness is the watch- 
word. 



140 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

"At night difficulty and danger increase, 
chiefly because of the increased danger of col- 
lision. Collisions sometimes occur — what with 
the absence of lights, the zigzag course of the 
ships of the convoy, and the speed with which 
we travel. But as a rule the accidents are of 
the scraping variety, and all thus is usually well. 
The convoy is purely a defensive measure. The 
patrol is the offensive; in this the destroyers 
and other craft go out and look for the U-boats, 
the idea being to hound them out of the seas." 

Then there are netting operations in which 
our sailors have played some part. The netting 
most often used is made of stout galvanized wire 
with a 15 -foot mesh. This is cut into lengths 
of 170 feet, with a depth of 45 feet. On top of 
this great net are lashed immense blocks of 
wood for buoys. Two oil-burning destroyers 
take the netting, and hanging it between them 
as deep down in the water as it will go, are 
ready to seine the 'silverfish.' The range of 
a submarine's periscope is little over a mile in 
any sort of sea. Vessels that are belching clouds 
of smoke may be picked up at distances of from 
three to five miles, but no more. In other 



NETTING OPERATIONS 141 

words, watchful eyes gazing through binoculars 
may see a periscope as far as that periscope 
sees. The destroyers, bearing their net between 
them, then pick up a distant periscope. They 
chart the submarine's direction (this may be 
told by the direction in which the periscope is 
cutting the water) and calculate her speed. 
Then they steam to a point directly ahead of the 
submarine, and the lashings are cut away from 
the net. While it thus floats in the submarine's 
path the destroyers speed away out of eye- 
shot. In a large majority of cases it is claimed 
the submarine runs into that net, or one like it. 
Results are a probable disarrangement of her 
machinery and her balance upset. She may 
be thrown over on her back. If she comes up 
she goes down again for good and all with a 
hole shot in her hull; if not, it is just as well, a 
shell has been saved. 

Submarines occasionally escape by changing 
their course after the nets have been set; but 
there appears to have been no instance of the 
destroyers themselves having been picked up 
by the periscope. This because they set pretty 
nearly as low as a submarine, and with their 



142 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

oil-burning propulsion give forth no telltale 
cloud of smoke. Other nets are hung from 
hollow glass balls, which the periscope cannot 
pick up against the sea water. These nets are 
set in profusion in the English Channel, the 
North Sea, or wherever submarines lurk, and 
they are tended just as the North River shad 
fishermen tend their nets. When a destroyer, 
making the rounds, sees that a glass ball has 
disappeared, there is more than presumptive 
evidence that something very valuable has been 
netted. 

Naval Lieutenant Weddingen, of the German 
submarine U-17, has related the following ex- 
perience with the British net system. The 
U-17 had left her base early in the morning and 
had passed into the North Sea, the boat being 
under water with periscope awash. "I looked 
through the periscope," said Weddingen, "and 
could see a red buoy behind my boat. When, 
ten minutes later, I looked I saw the buoy again, 
still at the same distance behind us. I steered 
to the right and then to the left, but the buoy 
kept on following us. I descended deeply into 
the water, but still saw the buoy floating on 



NETTED ! 143 

the surface above us. At last I discovered that 
we had caught the chain of the buoy and that 
we were dragging it along with us. 

"At the same time, also, I saw through the 
periscope that a strange small steamer was 
steering a course directly behind us and the 
buoy. At this time my sounding apparatus in- 
dicated that a screw steamer was in the vicinity. 
Observation revealed that five enemy torpedo- 
boats were approaching from the north. I in- 
creased the speed of the boat in the expectation 
of being able to attack one of them. The five 
torpedo-boats arranged themselves in a circle. 
I sank still deeper and got ready for eventuali- 
ties. 

"At this juncture my boat began to roll in a 
most incomprehensible manner. We began to 
rise and sink alternately. The steering-gear ap- 
parently was out of order. Soon afterward I 
discovered that we had encountered a wire 
netting and were hopelessly entangled in it. 
We had, in fact, got into the net of one of the 
hunters surrounding us. 

"For an hour and a half the netting carried 
us with it, and although I made every effort to 



144 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

get clear of it, it seemed impossible. There was 
nothing to do but increase the weight in the 
submarine as much as possible so that I might 
try to break the netting. Fortunately, when we 
had started I had pumped in from five to six 
tons of water, filling all the tanks. I increased 
the weight of the boat to the utmost, and sud- 
denly we felt a shock and were clear of the net- 
ting. I then descended as deeply in the water 
as I could, the monometer showing thirty metres. 
We remained under water for eighteen hours. 
When I wanted to ascertain where we were I 
noticed that my compass was out of order. For 
a time I steered by the green color of the water, 
but at last I had to get rid of the ballast in order 
to rise. I then discovered that the monometer 
continued to register the same depth, and was 
also out of order. 

"I had, therefore, to be very careful not to 
rise too high and thus attract the attention of 
the torpedo-boats. Slowly the periscope rose 
above the surface, and I could see the enemy 
in front of me, and toward the left the east coast 
of England. I tried to turn to starboard, but 
the rudder did not work. In consequence, I 



A HUMAN DOCUMENT 145 

had to sink again to the bottom of the sea, 
where I remained for six hours, at the end of 
which time I had succeeded in putting the com- 
pass in order, and also in repairing the steering- 
gear. But upon rising this time, we were de- 
tected by a torpedo-boat, which made straight 
for us, forcing me to descend again." (This ap- 
parently was before depth-bombs came into use.) 
"I remained submerged for two hours, then 
turned slowly outward, and at a distance of some 
fifty metres from the leading enemy craft, 
passed toward the open sea. At 9 o'clock in the 
evening we were able to rise and proceed in 
safety." 

Here is a human document, is it not? It is 
the experience of the tarpon at the undersea 
end of the line, or, in human terms, the hidden 
drama of man against man, drama of the sort 
made possible by the ingenuity of this modern 
age. 

Submarine-chasers are shallow craft, capable 
of a speed of thirty -five miles an hour or more, 
mounting guns fore and aft. Some of our 
chasers measure more than 200 feet over all 
(Eagle class), while others measure 110 feet. 



146 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

The British, as already said, like the 80-footer, 
although using all sizes. Well, in any event, 
the chaser cruises about looking for surface 
waves. Now, the surface wave is the path 
marked by a submarine on the surface of the 
water. Even when she is fifty feet below the 
surface she leaves this palpable pathway up 
above. And few submarines travel at a depth 
of sixty feet. Then besides this track there are 
air-bubbles and spots of oil, all confirming the 
presence beneath the water of the U-boat. 

So thereafter the chaser simply follows that 
surface wave until the submarine comes to the 
surface, as she must do sooner or later to get 
her bearings and look about for prey. When 
she does come up — she goes down for good. 
The hunt of the chaser has been aided in the 
past year or so by the depth-bomb, which did 
not exist in the first two and a half years of war. 
Equipped with this, she need not necessarily 
follow a surface wave all day; she simply drops 
the bomb down through this wave; at least she 
does under certain conditions. 

This depth-bomb, by the way, is a wonderful 
invention, and with its perfection began the 




From a photograph by Brown Brothers. 



A submarine-chaser. 




From a photograph by Brown Brother*. 

A torpedo-destroyer. 



THE DEPTH-BOMB 147 

great decrease in submarine losses. The bomb 
is cylindrical and has in the top a well in which 
is fitted a small propeller. As the water comes 
in contact with the propeller the sinking motion 
causes it to revolve. As it revolves it screws 
down a detonator which comes in contact with 
the charge at ten, fifteen, twenty, or forty or 
more feet as designated by the hand of an indi- 
cator on the bomb. The hand of this indicator 
is, of course, set by the officer before the bomb 
is released either from a gun or from tracks along 
the deck. 

Then there have been a number of tricks; 
some of them Yankee tricks, some of them the 
creatures of the equally fruitful British tar. 
One day in the North Sea a British patrol-vessel 
came across a trawler. It resembled the ordi- 
nary British trawler, but there were points of 
difference, points that interested the inquisitive 
— and suspicious — commander of the war-vessel. 
Chiefly there were a lot of stores upon her deck. 
She flew the Norwegian flag, and her skipper 
said he was neutral. But the British com- 
mander decided to take a chance. He arrested 
the crew, placed them in irons, and manned the 



148 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

trawler with a crew of French and English navy 
men. 

The trawler hovered about in the same lo- 
cality for three days, and then one morning, lo 
and behold, a periscope popped up close along- 
side. Seeing the waters clear of enemy ships, 
the U-"boat came to the surface and frisked 
blithely up to the trawler. She was greeted by a 
shower of machine-gun bullets, and surrendered 
without ado. There was really nothing else for 
the surprised skipper to do. For when he had 
last seen that trawler she was the parent ship 
of the submarine flotilla operating in that vicin- 
ity. In all, before the week was over, that 
trawler had captured six submarines without 
the loss of a life, and no one injured. 

Thereafter the parent-ship trawler was seized 
whenever the British could capture one, and the 
same expedient was tried. But after a time the 
Germans became wary of approaching parent- 
ships until they were convinced that their 
parenthood was more real than assumed. 

Then one day after the Americans arrived a 
three-masted schooner was commandeered. 
They put a deck-load of lumber on her; at least 



A FAKE SCHOONER 149 

it was an apparent deck-load. It was really a 
mask for a broadside of 3-pounder guns, differ- 
ent sections of the deck-load swinging open to 
admit of free play of the guns, as levers were 
pulled. 

The schooner, commanded by a Maine 
skipper and his crew, was turned loose in the 
North Sea. Astern towed a dingy; from the 
taffrail flew the American flag. Before long out 
popped a submarine. Aha ! A lumber-laden 
vessel — American ! The German commander, 
grinning broadly, stepped into a gig with a 
bombing crew; torpedoes were not wasted on 
sailing-vessels. 

"Get into your dingy," he cried, motioning 
toward the craft dangling astern. 

The Maine skipper, in his red underclothes, 
besought, and then cursed — while the German 
grinned the more broadly. Finally, however, 
the irate — sic — skipper and his crew of five 
clambered into their dingy as ordered by the 
commander of the submarine. And then ! No 
sooner had the schooner crew cleared the wind- 
jammer than the deck-load of lumber resolved 
itself into a series of doors, and out of each door 



150 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

protruded a gun. It was the last of that sub- 
marine, of course. The schooner got five sub- 
marines before another submarine happened to 
witness the destruction of a companion craft. 

Next day when the schooner approached a 
submarine the undersea boat let drive with a 
torpedo, and the joyous days of that particular 
wind-jammer were at an end. But thereafter 
the Germans seldom tried to bomb a sailing craft. 

Airplanes have played their important part 
in the work of our navy in combating the sub- 
marine. Seaplanes are sent on patrol from 
regular bases or from the deck of a parent-vessel, 
a steamship of large size. Flying at a height of 
10,000 feet, an airplane operator can see the 
shadow of a submarine proceeding beneath the 
surface. Thus viewing his prey, the aviator 
descends and drops a depth-bomb into the 
water. Our airmen have already won great 
commendation from the British Admiralty and 
aerial commanders. Whatever may have been 
the delays in airplane production in this coun- 
try, the American Navy has not been at fault, 
and Secretary Daniels's young men went into 
British seaplanes when American planes were 



AVIATORS IN ACTION 151 

not at hand. From British Admiralty sources 
have come many tales of the skill and courage 
of the American aviators. There was one re- 
cent instance noted of an American pilot scout- 
ing for submarines who spotted a periscope. 
He dropped a bomb a few feet astern and a few 
feet ahead of that periscope, both bombs fall- 
ing perfectly in line with the objective. He 
circled and then dropped a bomb in the centre 
of a disturbance in the water. Up came oil in 
great quantities. 

Another American pilot managed the rare 
feat of dropping a bomb precisely upon the 
centre of the deck of a submarine, and had the 
unhappy experience of seeing it fail to explode 
— as recently happened in the submarine fight 
off Cape Cod, near Chatham. 

In hunting for the submarines the American 
destroyers have patrolled an area as wide as 
that bounded roughly by the great V formed by 
New York, Detroit, and Knoxville, Tenn. And 
while patrolling they have become skilled in the 
use of the depth charges, in establishing smoke 
screens so as to hide vessels of a convoy from 
the periscope eye, and in marksmanship. One 



152 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

gun crew not long ago saw the spar of a sunken 
ship which they at first took to be a periscope. 
They shattered that spar at a distance of 2,000 
yards — more than a mile. 

Filled with the enthusiasm of each new en- 
counter with the enemy, the Americans have not 
been slow to build upon their experience, devis- 
ing more effective methods against the next 
affray. For example, two officers working on 
designs for new destroyers have introduced 
many new ideas gained from their experiences 
in submarine-hunting. Suggestions relating to 
improved gun-fire and the like are always arising 
from the men of the fleet, and often they are 
accepted and applied. 

A new appliance — I don't know by whom in- 
vented — is an improved microphone, by which 
the revolutions of a propeller are not only heard, 
but the direction also is indicated, while the 
force of the under-water sound-waves are trans- 
lated on an indicator in terms of proximity. 
The great drawback to this is that the sub- 
marines are also equipped with microphones 
of the sort — or at least are said to be. 

It is usually a grim business on both sides; 



HANS ROSE 153 

but occasionally a bit of humor comes out of 
the seas. A case in point was the message re- 
ceived almost every night by an American de- 
stroyer in European waters. The radiogram 
said: 

"My position is degrees north, and 



degrees west. Come and get me; I am waiting 

Hans Rose. 

Now Hans Rose was the name of the German 
submarine commander who visited Newport, 
October, 1917, as we have already narrated. 
Twice the destroyer proceeded swiftly to the 
location, but never did Hans Rose keep his 
appointment. If he had the American sailors 
would not have given Captain Rose's crew beer 
upon that occasion, as they did when Rose and 
his U-boat dropped into Newport harbor. 

Then there is a submarine commander known 
throughout the American flotilla as "Kelly." 
He commands a mine-laying submarine, which 
pays frequent visits to the district patrolled by 
the American destroyers. When he has fin- 
ished his task of distributing his mines where 



154 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

they will do the most harm, he generally de- 
votes a few minutes to a prank of some sort. 
Sometimes, it is a note flying from a buoy, 
scribbled in schoolboy English, and addressed 
to his American enemy. On other occasions 
Kelly and his men leave the submarine and 
saunter along a desolate stretch of Irish shore- 
line, always leaving behind them a placard or 
other memento of their visit. 

But the most hazardous exploit, according to 
gossip of American forecastles, was a visit which 
Kelly made to Dublin, remaining, it is said, 
for two days at one of the principal hotels, and 
later rejoining his boat somewhere on the west 
coast. 

His latest feat was to visit an Irish village and 
plant the German flag on a rise of land above 
the town. One may imagine how the Irish 
fisherfolk, who have suffered from mines, 
treated this flag and how ardently they wished 
that flag were the body of Kelly. 

But Kelly and his less humorously inclined 
commanders have been having a diminishing 
stock of enjoyment at the expense of the Allied 
navies in the past year. Senator Swanson, 



SUBMARINE SINKINGS 155 

acting chairman of the Naval Committee in 
Congress, said on June 6, after a conference 
with Secretary Daniels and his assistants, that 
the naval forces of the Entente Powers had de- 
stroyed 60 per cent of all German submarines 
constructed, and that they had cut the shipping 
losses in half. Lloyd George in his great speech 
last July, said that 150 submarines had been 
sunk since war began and of this number 75 
were sunk in the past 12 months. Truly an 
extraordinary showing. 



CHAPTER VIII 

PERILS AND TRIUMPHS OF SUBMARINE-HUNTING THE LOSS 

OF OUR FIRST WAR-SHIP, THE CONVERTED GUNBOAT "AL- 
CEDO" BRAVERY OF CREW " CASSIN " STRUCK BY TOR- 
PEDO, BUT REMAINS IN THE FIGHT LOSS OF THE " JACOB 

JONES" SINKING OF THE " SAN DIEGO " DESTROYERS 

"NICHOLSON" AND " FANNING" CAPTURE A SUBMARINE, 

WHICH SINKS CREW OF GERMANS BROUGHT INTO PORT — 

THE POLICY OF SILENCE IN REGARD TO SUBMARINE- 
SINKINGS 

BUT as in the pursuit of dangerous game 
there is always liable to be two angles to 
any experience — or say, rather, a reverse angle, 
such as the hunted turning hunter — so in the 
matter of our fight against the submarine there 
are instances — not many, happily — where the 
U-boat has been able to deal its deadly blow 
first. 

The first of our war-ships to be sunk by a 
submarine was the naval patrol gun-boat Al- 
cedo, which was torpedoed shortly before 2 
o'clock on the morning of November 5, 1917, 
almost exactly seven months after we entered 
the war. She was formerly G. W. Childs 
Drexel's yacht Alcedo, and Anthony J. Drexel 

156 



LOSS OF THE ALCEDO lo7 

Paul, an officer in the Naval Reserve, was on 
her at the time. The vessel was the flag-ship 
of one of the patrol-flotillas, and for months 
had performed splendid service in the North 
Sea. 

The torpedo that sunk the vessel came with- 
out warning, and so true was the aim that the 
war-ship went down in four minutes, carrying 
with her one officer and twenty of the crew. 
Commander William T. Conn, U. S. N., who 
commanded the vessel, in telling later of the 
experience, paid a high testimonial to the cool- 
ness and bravery of the crew. Eighty per cent 
of the men were reserves, but regulars could 
have left no better record of courage and pre- 
cision. 

"Here," said Commander Conn, "is a story 
that indicates the kind of men we have in the 
navy. I had a young lad in my crew, a yeo- 
man, and one day I sent for him and told him 
that if we were ever torpedoed he was to save 
the muster-roll, so that when it was all over it 
would be possible to check up and find who 
had been saved. Well, the Alcedo was torpe- 
doed at 2 o'clock one morning, and in four 



158 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

minutes she disappeared forever. Hours after- 
ward, when we were waiting to be picked up, I 
saw my yeoman, and I said: 

"'Son, where is my muster-roll?' 

"'Here it is,' he replied, as he reached inside 
his shirt and pulled it out. . . . And that 
same boy, in the terrible minutes that followed 
the loss of our ship, found a broken buoy. He 
was holding on to it when he saw one of our 
hospital stewards, who was about to give in. 
He struggled to the side of the steward and 
with one hand held him above the water while 
with the other he clung to the buoy. He held 
on until both were saved." 

While the Alcedo was the first war-vessel to 
be sunk by a submarine, the first war-ship to 
be stricken in torpedo attack was the destroyer 
Cassin, one of the vessels that raced out of New- 
port to rescue the victims of the ravages of the 
German U-boat off Nantucket, in October, 1916. 
The Cassin was on patrol duty and had sighted 
a submarine about four miles away. The de- 
stroyer, in accordance with custom, headed for 
the spot, and had about reached it when the 
skipper, Commander Walter H. Vernou, sighted 



THE CASSIN 159 

a torpedo running at high speed near the sur- 
face, and about 400 yards away. The missile 
was headed straight for the midship section of 
the war-ship. Realizing the situation, the com- 
manding officer rang for the emergency full 
speed ahead on both engines, put the rudder 
hard over, and was just clear of the torpedo's 
course when it broached on the water, turned 
sharply and headed for the stern of the vessel. 
Here stood Osmond Kelly Ingram, gunner's 
mate, at his gun. He saw that if the torpedo 
struck at the stern it would, aside from working 
initial damage, cause the explosion of munitions 
stored on the after deck. 

Thereupon, knowing that the torpedo was 
going to strike about where he stood, he ran to 
the pile of munitions and tumbled them into 
the sea. The explosion occurred as he was at 
work, and he was blown into the ocean and lost. 
But he had not died in vain, for the secondary 
explosion that he feared was averted by his act 
of supreme sacrifice. 

Fortunately, only one engine was disabled by 
the explosion, and the destroyer was thus per- 
mitted to remain under way. She zigzagged to 



160 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

and fro, hoping to get a chance at her assailant, 
and in about an hour the German submarine 
commander decided that it was a good time to 
come to the surface for a better look at the de- 
stroyer. As the conning-tower came into view 
the Cassin's gunners delivered four shots, two 
of which fell so close to the U-boat that she 
submerged and was not seen again. In the 
meantime the crew, with splendid team-work, 
set about repairing the damage and attending 
to the five men who were wounded, none seri- 
ously. 

After a while British war-ships came up and 
the Cassin returned to port. Admiral Sims 
mentioned Commander Vernou and his officers 
in despatches to Secretary Daniels, and more 
than a score of the seamen were cited for cool- 
ness and efficiency. 

Our second war-ship definitely known to be 
sunk by the German submarines was the de- 
stroyer Jacob Jones, which was struck at 4.12 
o'clock on the afternoon of December 6, last. 
The destroyer was on patrol, and nothing was 
known of the proximity of the submarine until 
the torpedo hit the vessel. The Jacob Jones, 



THE JACOB JONES 161 

which was commanded by Lieutenant-Com- 
mander David Worth Bagley, a brother-in-law 
of Secretary Daniels and brother of Ensign 
Worth Bagley, who was killed on the torpedo- 
boat Winslow in the fight at Cardenas in the 
Spanish- American War, went down in seven- 
teen minutes after she was struck. Gunner 
Harry R. Hood was killed by the explosion, but 
the remainder of the company got safely over- 
side in rafts and boats. The submarine ap- 
peared after the sinking and took one of the 
survivors aboard as a prisoner. Lieutenant- 
Commander Bagley, with five others, landed in 
a small boat on the Scilly Islands while other 
survivors reached shore in various ways. The 
Jacob Jones was regarded by superstitious navy 
men as something of a Jonah, she having fig- 
ured in one or two incidents involving German 
spies while in this country. 

The first and to date the only American war- 
ship lost in American waters as a result of sub- 
marine attack was the armored cruiser San 
Diego — formerly the California — which was 
sunk by a mine off Point o' Woods on the 
Long Island coast on the morning of July 19, 



162 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

1918. Facts associated with the disaster, in- 
volving the loss of some fifty lives, are illu- 
minated with the light of supreme heroism, gal- 
lantry, and utter devotion. In no single instance 
was there failure on the part of officers or crew 
to meet the unexpected test in a manner quite 
in accordance with the most glorious annals 
of the United States Navy. 

Point will perhaps be given to this if we pic- 
ture Captain Harley H. Christie pushing his 
way about the welter of wreckage in a barrel, 
reorganizing some 800 of his men, who were 
floating about on every conceivable sort of 
object, into the disciplined unit that they had 
comprised before they were ordered overside 
to take their chances in the ocean. Or again, 
taking the enlisted-man aspect of the situation, 
there was the full-throated query of a husky 
seaman, clinging to a hatch as the San Diego 
disappeared : 

"Where's the captain?" 

Then a chorus of voices from the water: 

"There he is ! See his old bald head ! God 
bless it ! Three cheers for the skip !" 

There they all were, some 800 men, survivors 



THE LOSS OF THE SAN DIEGO 163 

of a company numbering thirteen-odd hundred, 
in the water, out of sight of land, not a ship in 
sight — and twelve life-boats among them, cheer- 
ing, singing, exchanging badinage and words of 
good hope. 

The San Diego, which was one of the crack 
shooting-ships of the navy, and had made seven 
round trips to France in convoy work with- 
out ever having seen a submarine, was on her 
way from the Portsmouth, N. H., navy-yard, 
where she had been completely overhauled in 
dry-dock and coaled, to New York, where 
her crew were to have had short liberty, pre- 
liminary to another voyage to France. She 
carried a heavy deck-load of lumber which she 
was to take to France for the Marine Corps. 
She had in her bunkers some 3,000 tons of coal. 

On the morning of July 19, the cruiser, shortly 
after 11 o'clock, had reached a point about 
seven miles southeast of Point o' Woods. The 
sun was shining brilliantly, but the coast-line 
was veiled in a heavy haze. There was a fair 
ground-swell running, but no sea. The San 
Diego was ploughing along at a fifteen-knot clip, 
not pursuing the zigzag course which it is cus- 



164 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

tomary for vessels to follow in enemy-infested 
waters. 

No submarine warning had been issued, and, 
as the vessel was only seven miles offshore, 
there may be no doubt that the officers of the 
war-ship did not consider the trip as any more 
hazardous than the hundreds of journeys she 
had made along our coast from port to port. 
The crew were engaged in the usual routine, 
with the added labor of getting the vessel ship- 
shape after the grimy operation of coaling at 
Portsmouth. The explosion came without 
warning at 11.15 o'clock. It was extremely 
heavy, accompanied by a rending and grinding 
of metal and by the explosion of the after- 
powder magazine, which destroyed the quarter- 
deck and sent the mainmast, with wireless at- 
tached, crashing overboard. The torpedo, or 
whatever it was, wrecked the engine-room, 
demolished the boilers, and put the electric 
dynamos out of order. 

The thunderous explosion was followed im- 
mediately by the insistent whine of bugles and 
the clanging of alarm-bells, calling the crew to 
battle-stations. And the crew went quietly, 



"ABANDON SHIP !" 165 

without the slightest disorder. Down in the 
bunkers, four decks below, was an officer, with 
a party of seamen, setting things to rights after 
the coaling. As the explosion occurred and 
the vessel heeled, these men, as though instinc- 
tively, formed into a line, and then without 
excitement or hurry climbed the four upright 
steel ladders to the deck, the officer, of course, 
following last of all. 

On deck the 6-inch starboard and port bat- 
teries were blazing away, not only at objects 
that might turn out to be periscopes or sub- 
marines, but in order to call assistance; for 
, the wireless was out of commission, and there 
was not a sail or a hull in sight. 

After a few minutes, the bugles sounded the 
order "Prepare to abandon ship." This ap- 
plied to every one but the gun crews, who had 
to remain at their stations for at least five min- 
utes after the process of abandonment was put 
into operation. The post of one of the gun- 
crew officers was in the fighting-top of the 
basket-mast forward, his duty being that of 
spotter of his crew. As he hurried along the 
deck to his station the crew lined up along the 



166 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

port rail with life-preservers and were jumping 
into the sea as ordered. 

There were comrades who had been killed 
or maimed by the shifting deck-load of lumber; 
there were comrades who, in jumping into the 
sea, had struck their heads against the steel 
hull, breaking their necks, and yet there the 
rest stood in line, waiting for the orders that 
would send them overboard. 

"Isn't this a crime," laughed one of the sea- 
men, "just after I had got on my liberty blues 
and was all set for the high spots in New 
York!" 

"Cripes ! My cigarettes are all wet ! Who's 
got a dry one?" 

"Look out there, kid; be careful you don't 
get your feet wet." 

Twelve life-boats were overside, set adrift 
in the usual manner to be filled after the men 
were in the water. Then, of course, the sea 
was littered with lumber and all sorts of debris 
which would keep a man afloat. 

While the abandonment of the ship was 
under way, the officer who had been in the 
bunkers, and whose station was in the fight- 



OVERSIDE 167 

ing-top, hurried upward to his post. The port 
guns were still being served, but their muzzles 
were inclining ever downward toward the water. 
In his battle-station this officer directed the 
firing of the port guns until their muzzles dipped 
beneath the surface of the sea. There were 
three officers with him in the fighting-top and 
three seamen. Below they saw the perfect 
order which obtained, the men stepping into 
the sea in ranks, laughing and cheering. 

Presently this officer sent one of the seamen 
down the mast to get life-belts for the group of 
men in the spotting-station. By the time he 
returned the bugles were ordering the total 
abandonment of the vessel. 

So the little group made their way, not to 
the deck, which was now straight up and down, 
but to the starboard side of the hull, upon which 
they could walk, the vessel then being prac- 
tically on her beam ends. Trapped at their 
stations on the port side were members of the 
6-inch port battery. One of them was seen 
by a comrade just before rising waters shut 
him from view. The sinking man nodded and 
waved his hand. 



168 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

"Good-by, AT," he said. 

As the officer who had been in the fighting- 
top jumped clear into the sea, the vessel began 
to go down, now by the head. Slowly the stern 
rose, and as it did so, he says, the propellers 
came into view, and perched on one of the blades 
was a devil-may-care American seaman, waving 
his hat and shouting. 

The vessel, the officer says, disappeared at 
11.30 o'clock, fifteen minutes after the explo- 
sion occurred. There was some suction as the 
San Diego disappeared, but not enough, ac- 
cording to the calculation of the survivors with 
whom I talked, to draw men to their death. 

In the course of another hour, Captain Chris- 
tie had collected as many of his officers as he 
could, and the work of apportioning the sur- 
vivors to the twelve boats and to pieces of flot- 
sam was carried on with naval precision. One 
man, clinging to a grating, called out that he 
had cramps. A comrade in one of the boats 
thereupon said the sailor could have his place. 
He leaped into the sea and the man with cramps 
was assisted into the boat. 

While this was going on a seaplane from the 



CAPTAIN CHRISTIE 169 

Bay Shore station passed over the heads of 
the men in the water. The seamen did not 
think they had been seen, but they had been, 
and the aviator, flying to Point o' Woods, landed 
and used the coast-guard telephone to apprise 
the Fire Island coast-guards of the disaster. 
From this station word was sent broadcast 
by wireless. In the meantime, Captain Christie 
had picked two crews of the strongest seamen 
and had them placed in No. 1 and No. 2 life- 
boats. These men Were ordered to row south- 
west to Fire Island and summon assistance. 

In one boat thirteen men were placed; in 
the other fourteen. As the captain got the 
boat-crews arranged, his barrel began to get 
waterlogged and became rather precarious as 
a support; whereupon a floating seaman pushed 
his way through the water with a ladder. 

"Here, sir," he said, "try this." 

Thus it was that Captain Christie trans- 
ferred to a new flag-ship. 

The boat-crews left the scene of the disaster 
at 12.35, and they rowed in fifteen-minute re- 
lays from that hour until quarter past three. 
Before they had gone four miles merchant ships 



170 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

were rushing to the spot, as set forth in the 
wireless warning. These merchantmen got all 
of the men afloat in the water — or a vast ma- 
jority of them — and took them to the naval 
station at Hoboken. 

At the time of the disaster and for twenty- 
four hours thereafter there was some doubt 
whether or not the San Diego had been lost 
through contact with a mine, or was struck 
by a torpedo launched from a submarine. Sub- 
marine activities off Cape Cod the following 
Sunday, however, gave proof that the under- 
sea boats had made their second hostile visit 
to our shores. 

But later belief was that the cruiser was 
sunk by a mine planted by the submarine. 
One of our most illustrious exploits, indeed, oc- 
curred hardly a fortnight before the loss of the 
Jones, when two destroyers, the Nicholson and 
Fanning, steamed into their base with flags fly- 
ing and German prisoners on their decks. 

It was a clear November afternoon, and the 
destroyer Fanning was following her appointed 
route through the waters of the North Sea. 
Off to starboard the destroyer Nicholson was 



THE NICHOLSON AND FANNING 171 

plunging on her way, throwing clouds of black 
smoke across the horizon. Near by was a mer- 
chant vessel, and the destroyers were engaged 
in taking her through the dangerous waters to 
safety. The air was so clear that minutest 
objects on the horizon were easily picked up by 
the questing binoculars of the men on watch. 
Suddenly came a cry from one of the forward 
lookouts: 

"Periscope, two points off the starboard 
bow!" 

The call sounded from stem to stern, and 
instantly the alarm to general quarters was 
sounded while the helm was thrown hard over. 
The signalman bent over his flag-locker and, 
in compliance with the order of the commander, 
bent flags onto the halyards, giving the location 
of the submarine to the Nicholson, while helio- 
graph flashes from the bridge summoned her 
to joint attack. The waters were smooth, with 
a long swell, and the lookout had seen a scant 
eighteen inches of periscope, which had van- 
ished immediately it fell under his vision. Un- 
doubtedly the observer at the other end of the 
submarine's periscope had seen the Fanning at 



172 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

about the same time the presence of the under- 
sea craft was detected. It had appeared about 
400 yards from the destroyer's course. 

In less time than it takes to tell, the Fanning, 
with throttles suddenly opened, plunged into 
the waters where the periscope had last been 
seen. And at the proper moment the com- 
mander, standing tensely on the bridge, released 
a depth-bomb from its fixed place. The ex- 
plosive, 300 pounds in weight, sank with a 
gentle splash into the rolling wake of the de- 
stroyer and, at the depth as regulated before 
the bomb was released, it exploded with a terrific 
report. 

Up from the ocean rose a towering column of 
water. It hung in the air for a moment like a 
geyser, and then gradually fell back to the level 
of the sea. A score of voices proclaimed the 
appearance of oil floating upon the water. Oil 
is sometimes released by a submarine to throw 
an attacking destroyer off the scent; but this 
time there were bubbles, too. That was quite 
significant. Then while the Fanning circled the 
spot wherein the explosion had occurred, the 
Nicholson stormed up, cut across the supposed 



BAGGED ! 173 

lurking-place of the submarine, and released one 
of her depth charges. She, too, circled about 
the mass of boiling, oil-laden water. 

For several minutes the two destroyers 
wheeled in and out like hawks awaiting their 
prey, and then suddenly there was a cry as a 
disturbance was noted almost directly between 
the two craft. The rush of water grew in volume 
until, as the men of the destroyers watched 
with all the ardor of fishermen landing trout, 
the U-boat came to the surface like a dead 
whale. 

But the Americans were cautious. While 
stricken the undersea craft might show fight. 
So with guns and torpedo-tubes trained upon 
the submarine, they waited. But there was no 
fight in that boat. The depth charges had 
done their work thoroughly. While the visible 
portion of the hull appeared to have been un- 
injured, it was perfectly clear that the vessel 
was not under perfect control. Her ballast- 
tanks were damaged, which accounted for a 
bad list. 

The explosions of the depth-bombs had hurled 
her to the bottom, where she retained sufficient 



174 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

buoyancy to catapult to the surface. As the 
conning-tower came into sight the Nicholson 
fired three shots from her stern gun. The U-boat 
then seemed to right herself, making fair speed 
ahead. The Fanning headed in toward her, 
firing from the bow gun. After the third shot 
the crew of the German vessel came up on deck, 
their hands upraised. 

While approaching the craft both the de- 
stroyers kept their guns trained for instant use, 
but, as it turned out, precautions were unneces- 
sary. Lines were thrown aboard the submersi- 
ble and were made fast; but the U-boat, either 
stricken mortally or scuttled by her crew, began 
to settle. Lines were hastily cast off, and the 
boat sought her long rest upon the bottom of a 
sea to which no doubt she had sent many harm- 
less vessels. 

The crew of the U-boat, all of whom had life- 
preservers about their waists, leaped into the 
water and swam to the Fanning ; most of them 
were exhausted when they reached the de- 
stroyer's side. As the submarine sank, five or 
six men were caught in the wireless gear and 
carried below the surface before they disen- 



RESCUE OF GERMANS 175 

tangled themselves. Ten of the men were so 
weak that it was necessary to pass lines under 
their arms to haul them aboard. One man was 
in such a state that he could not even hold the 
line that was thrown to him. 

Chief Pharmacist's Mate Elzer Howell and 
Coxswain Francis G. Connor thereupon jumped 
overboard and made a line fast to the German. 
But he died a few minutes after he was hauled 
aboard. 

Once aboard, the prisoners were regaled with 
hot coffee and sandwiches, and so little did they 
mind the change to a new environment that, 
according to official Navy Department report, 
they began to sing. They were fitted with 
warm clothes supplied by the American sailors, 
and in other ways made to feel that, pirates 
though they were, and murderers as well, the 
American seafaring man knew how to be 
magnanimous. 

The submarine bore no number nor other dis- 
tinguishing marks, but her life-belts were marked 
on one side "Kaiser," and on the other "Gott." 
The Fanning steamed to port at high speed, and 
at the base transferred the prisoners under 



176 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

guard, who as they left the destroyer gave three 
lusty hochs for the Farming's men. Then the 
Fanning put out to sea a few miles, and after 
the young American commander had read the 
burial service, the body of the German seaman 
who had died was committed to the depths. 
The commander of the Fanning was Lieuten- 
ant A. S. Carpender, a Jerseyman, who in his 
report gave particular praise to Lieutenant Wal- 
ter Henry, officer of the deck, and to Coxswain 
Loomis, who first sighted the submarine. 

This was by no means the first time a sub- 
marine had been sunk by an American destroyer, 
but in accordance with the British policy, the 
Ajnericans had withheld all information of the 
sort. However, this was such a good story, and 
the capture of prisoners so unusual, that by 
agreement between the Navy Department and 
the British Admiralty, the salient details of 
this encounter were given to the public. 

The idea of secrecy was devised by the British 
at the very outset, the purpose being to make 
the waging of submarine warfare doubly objec- 
tionable to the men of the German Navy. It is 
bad enough to be lost in a naval engagement, but 



IDEA OF SECRECY 177 

at least the names of the ships involved and the 
valor of the crews, both friend and enemy, are 
noted. But under the British system, a sub- 
marine leaves port, and if she is sunk by a patrol- 
vessel or other war-ship, that fact is never made 
known. The Germans know simply that still 
another submarine has entered the great void. 

It adds a sinister element to an occupation 
sufficiently sinister in all its details. There 
may be no doubt that the policy of silence has 
had its effect upon the German morale. That 
crews have mutinied on the high seas is un- 
doubted, . while we know of several mutinies 
involving hundreds of men that have occurred 
in German ports — all because of objections to 
submarine service. It is even said that sub- 
marine service is now one of the penalties for 
sailors who have offended against the German 
naval regulations, and there are stories of sub- 
marines decked with flowers as they leave port, 
a symbol, of course, of men who go out not 
expecting to return — all for the glory of the 
man known throughout the American Navy 
as "Kaiser Bill." 

It is thus unlikely that such success as might 



178 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 



may — attend the efforts of our coast-patrol 
vessels to dispose of the submarines which come 
here will not be published unless the highly col- 
ored complexion of facts warrants it. One may 
imagine that service in a submarine so far from 
home is not alluring, and still less so when sub- 
marines sent to the waters of this hemisphere 
are heard from nevermore. 

Just how unpopular the service has been 
may be adduced from chance remarks of 
German submarine prisoners who come to this 
country from time to time. The men of the 
U-boat sunk by the Fanning made no effort to 
conceal their satisfaction at their change of 
quarters, while Germans in other cases have 
told their British captors that they were glad 
they had been taken. 

There is the story of the storekeeper of the 
German submarine which sunk several vessels 
off our coast last June. He said he had for- 
merly served on a German liner plying between 
Hoboken and Hamburg, and his great regret 
was that he had not remained in this country 
when he had a chance. Life on a submarine, 
he said, was a dog's life. 



HARD LIFE ON SUBMARINE 179 

Even under peace conditions this is so. The 
men are cramped for room, in the first place. 
In a storm the vessel, if on the surface, is thrown 
almost end over end, while the movement of 
stormy waves affects a boat even thirty feet 
below the water-level. Cooking is very often 
out of the question, and the men must live on 
canned viands. They have not even the ex- 
citement of witnessing such encounters as the 
vessel may have. Three men only, the operating 
officers, look through the periscope; the others 
have their stations and their various duties 
to perform. If a vessel is sunk they know it 
through information conveyed by their officers. 
There was a story current in Washington before 
we entered the war, of a sailor, a German sailor 
who had had nearly a year of steady service on 
a submarine. He was a faithful man, and as 
he was about to go ashore on a long leave, his 
commanding officer asked what he could do 
for him. 

"Only one thing," was the reply. "Let me 
have one look through the periscope." 

In the past year the Allies have been employ- 
ing their own submarines in the war against the 



180 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

German undersea peril. This has been made 
possible by the perfection of the listening device 
before referred to by which the presence of a 
submarine and other details may be made 
known. But it is a dangerous business at best, 
and not largely employed, if only for the reason 
that patrol- vessels are not always likely to dis- 
tinguish between friend and foe. We have 
in mind the tragic instance of the American 
cruiser which fired upon a submarine in the 
Mediterranean, killing two men, only to find 
that the vessel was an Italian undersea boat. 
Of course our deepest regrets were immediately 
forthcoming, and were accepted by the Italian 
Government in like spirit. 



CHAPTER IX 

OUR BATTLESHIP FLEET — GREAT WORKSHOP OF WAR 

PREPARATIONS FOR FOREIGN SERVICE — ON A BATTLE- 
SHIP DURING A SUBMARINE ATTACK THE WIRELESS 

THAT WENT WRONG THE TORPEDO THAT MISSED AT- 
TACK ON SUBMARINE BASES OF DOUBTFUL EXPEDIENCY — 

WHEN THE GERMAN FLEET COMES OUT ESTABLISHMENT 

OF STATION IN THE AZORES 

WHEN the German fleet of battleships and 
battle-cruisers sallies forth into the North 
Sea for a final fight against the British Grand 
Fleet, they will find American dreadnoughts and 
superdreadnoughts ready and eager to lend the 
material weight of their assistance to the Allied 
cause. A substantial number of our capital 
ships, under command of Rear-Admiral Hugh 
Rodman, are with the Grand Fleet, and have 
been for some months. Both in Washington 
and in London a German sea offensive on a 
grand scale has long been regarded as a pos- 
sibility, and the admiralty authorities at the 
Entente capitals are anxious for the supreme 
test, and confident concerning its outcome. 
We have already noted Admiral Beatty's action 

181 



182 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

in assigning American battleships to the place 
of honor in the line of sea-fighters which went 
forth to meet a reported German attack some 
time ago. It was a false report, but the honor 
done our naval fighters stands. 

The expansion of the United States Navy has 
also included an enormous increase in our battle- 
ships and battle-cruisers; definite details are 
withheld, but it is not too much to say that we 
are thoroughly equipped to assist Great Britain 
very vitally in this respect. In the summer of 
1917 Secretary Daniels announced that the 
Atlantic Fleet — our Grand Fleet — had been re- 
organized into two divisions, officially known as 
"forces." Battleship Force One had as com- 
mander Vice-Admiral Albert W. Grant, and 
Battleship Force Two was commanded by Vice- 
Admiral DeWitt Coffman. Admiral Henry T. 
Mayo remained as commander-in-chief. 

"There are," said Secretary Daniels in an- 
nouncing the new arrangement — July 18, 1917 — 
"twice as many battleships in commission as 
we ever had before; in fact, every battleship we 
have is in commission. The whole purpose of 
the new organization is to keep our battleship 



BATTLESHIP FORCES 183 

fleet in as perfect condition as possible, to put 
it in the highest state of efficiency and readiness 
for action." 

Eventually an appreciable number of our 
best fighters were sent to the Grand Fleet — 
which, however, is by no means to be understood 
as implying that our own coasts are unprotected. 
Not at all. The Navy Department has a view- 
point which embraces all possible angles, and 
nothing in the way of precaution has been 
overlooked. At the same time it has been the 
theory of Secretary Daniels that the way to 
beat the submarine and the German Navy in 
general was to go to the base of things, "to the 
neck of the bottle," and this as much as any- 
thing — more, in sooth — accounts for the hun- 
dreds of war-ships of various sorts that now 
fly our flag in the war zone. 

The orders dividing the fleet into two "forces" 
and despatching a representation of our great- 
est fighters to the North Sea was preceded by 
a period of preparation the like of which this 
country — perhaps the world — never saw. The 
Atlantic Fleet was, indeed, converted into a 
huge workshop of war, turning out its finished 



184 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

products — fighting men. A visitor to the fleet, 
writing under date of May 14, expressed amaze- 
ment at the amount of well-ordered activity 
which characterized a day on every one of the 
battleships. Here were men being trained for 
armed-guard service on merchantmen, groups 
of neophytes on the after deck undergoing in- 
struction on the loading-machines; farther along 
a group of qualified gunners were shattering a 
target with their 5 -inch gun. Other groups 
were hidden in the turrets with their long 14 
and 12 inch guns, three or two to a turret. 
Signal-flags were whipping the air aloft — classes 
in signalling; while from engine-room and fight- 
ing-tops each battleship hummed with the 
activities of masters and] pupils teaching and 
learning every phase of the complicated calling 
of the modern navy man. 

And there were days when the great fleet 
put to sea for target practice and for battle 
manoeuvres, the turrets and broadsides belching 
forth their tons upon tons of steel and the ob- 
servers aloft sending down their messages of 
commendation for shots well aimed. It is the 
statement of those in a position to know that 



TRAINING JACKIES 185 

never were jackies so quick to learn as those 
of our war-time personnel. Whether the fact 
of war is an incentive, or whether American 
boys are adapted, through a life of competitive 
sport, quickly to grasp the sailorman's trade, the 
truth remains that in a very short space the boy 
who has never seen a ship develops swiftly into 
a bluejacket, rolling, swaggering, but none the 
less deft, precise, and indomitable. 

"They come into the navy to fight," said one 
of the officers of the fleet, "and they want to 
get into the thick of it. We turn out qualified 
gun crews in three months — and that is going 
some. A large majority of the new men of 
the fleet come from farms, especially from the 
Middle West. More than 90 per cent of the 
seamen are native-born, and on any ship may 
be heard the Southern drawl, the picturesque 
vernacular of the lower East or West side of 
New York City, the twang of New England, the 
rising intonation of the Western Pennsylvanian, 
and that indescribable vocal cadence that comes 
only from west of Chicago. 

Not only gunners were developed, but en- 
gineers, electricians, cooks, bakers — what-not? 



186 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

They are still being developed on our home ships, 
but in the meantime the fruits of what was 
done in the time dating from our entrance into 
the war to the present summer are to be noted 
chiefly in the North Sea, where our vessels lie 
waiting with their sisters of the British Fleet 
for the appearance of the German armada. 

Let us transfer ourselves for the time being 
from the general to the particular: in other 
words, to the deck of a great American dread- 
nought, which, together with others of her type, 
has been detached from the Atlantic Fleet and 
assigned to duty with Admiral Beatty's great 
company of battleships and battle-cruisers. 
This battleship has entered the war zone, en 
route to a certain rendezvous, whence all the 
American units will proceed to their ultimate 
destination in company. 

It is night. It is a black night. The stars 
are viewless and the ocean through which the 
great steel hull is rushing, with only a slight 
hiss where the sharp cutwater parts the waves, 
is merely a part of the same gloom. Aloft and 
on deck the battleship is a part of the night. 
Below deck all is dark save perchance a thin, 



ON A BATTLESHIP 187 

knife-like ray emanating from a battle-lantern. 
The lookouts, straining their eyes into the 
black for long, arduous stretches, are relieved 
and half-blind and dizzy they grope along the 
deck to their hammocks, stumbling over the 
prostrate forms of men sleeping beside the 
5 -inch guns, exchanging elbow thrusts with those 
of the gun crews who are on watch. 

The trip this far has been a constant suces- 
sion of drills and instruction in the art of 
submarine fighting — all to the tune of general 
alarm and torpedo defense bells. And the 
while preparations for sighting the enemy have 
never been minimized. They involved precau- 
tions not dissimilar to those on board a de- 
stroyer or other patrol- vessel, but were of course 
conducted on a vastly greater scale. As sug- 
gesting an outline of measures of watchfulness, 
we may regard this battleship as the centre of 
a pie, with special watches detailed to cover 
their given slice of this pie. These slices are 
called water sectors, and each sector, or slice, 
extends at a given angle from the course of the 
ship out to the horizon. Of course as the vessel 
is constantly moving at a rapid rate, the centre 



188 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

of the pie shifts, too. In this way every foot 
of water within the great circle of the horizon 
is under constant supervision night and day by 
a small army of lookouts, armed with binoc- 
ulars and gun telescopes. 

And so our battleship goes on through the 
night. On the bridge all is quiet. Officers 
move to and fro with padded footfalls, and the 
throb of the great engines is felt rather than 
heard. The wind begins to change, and pres- 
ently the captain glancing out the door of the 
chart-house clucks his chagrin. For the night 
has begun to reveal itself, thanks, or rather, no 
thanks, to the moon, which has torn away from 
a shrouding mass of clouds and sends its rays 
down upon the waters of the sea. It had been 
a fine night to dodge the lurking submarine, 
but now the silver light of the moon, falling 
upon the leaden side of the battleship, converts 
her into a fine target. 

"Nature is certainly good to the Germans," 
chuckles an officer to a companion, taking care 
that the captain does not hear." 

"Yes," comes the sententious reply. The 
lookouts grow more rigid, for whereas formerly 



ON WATCH 189 

they could see nothing, objects on the water are 
now pencilled out in luminous relief. 

Deep down below the water there is a listening 
"ear" — a submarine telephone device through 
which a submarine betrays its presence; any 
sound the undersea boat makes, the beating of 
the propellers, for instance, is heard by this 
ear, and in turn by the ear of the man who 
holds the receiver. 

Presently the man who is on detector watch 
grows tense. He listens attentively and then 
stands immobile for a moment or so. Then he 
steps to a telephone and a bell rings in the chart- 
house where the captain and his navigating and 
watch officers are working out the courses and 
positions. 

"I hear a submarine signalling, sir," comes 
the voice from the depths to the captain who 
stands by the desk with the receiver at bis 
ear. 

"What signal?" barks the skipper. 

"'M Q' repeated several times. Sounds as if 
one boat was calling another." (The sailor re- 
ferred to the practice which submarines have of 
sending subaqueous signals to one another, 



190 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

signals which are frequently caught by listen- 
ing war-ships of the Allies.) 

The captain orders the detector man to miss 
nothing, and then a general alarm (to quarters) 
is passed through the great vessel by word of 
mouth. This is no time for the clanging of 
bells and the like. The lookouts are advised as 
to the situation. 

"I hope we're not steaming into a nest." 
The captain frowns and picks up the telephone. 
"Anything more?" he asks. 

"Still getting signals, sir; same as before; 
same direction and distance." 

Down to the bridge through a speaking-tube, 
running from the top of the forward basket-mast 
comes a weird voice. 

"Bright light, port bow, sir. Distance about 
4,000 yards." (Pause.) " Light growing dim. 
Very dim now." 

From other lookouts come confirmatory words. 

"Dim light; port bow." 

"The light has gone." 

"It's a sub, of course," murmurs an officer. 
"No craft but a submarine would carry a night 
light on her periscope. She must be signalling." 



A FALSE ALARM 191 

A thrill goes through the battleship. In a 
minute the big steel fighter may be lying on her 
side, stricken; or there may be the opportunity 
for a fair fight. 

The captain sends an officer below to the de- 
tector and changes the course of the ship. 
Every one awaits developments, tensely. 

The wireless operator enters the chart-house. 

"I can't get your message to the [an- 
other battleship], sir. I can't raise her. Been 
trying for ten minutes." 

The officer who has been below at the detector 
comes up and hears the plight of the wireless 
man. He smiles. 

"In exactly five minutes," he says, "you 
signal again." The radio man goes to his room 
and the officer descends to the detector. In 
precisely five minutes he hears the signal which 
had bothered the man on detector watch. He 
hurries to the bridge with the solution of the in- 
cident. The wireless had become disconnected 
and its signals had come in contact with the 
detector. So there was no submarine. Every- 
thing serene. The battleship settles down to 
her night routine. 



192 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

The dark wears into dawn, and the early 
morning, with the dusk, is the favorite hunting- 
time of the submarine, for the reason that then 
a periscope, while seeing clearly, is not itself 
easily to be discerned. The lookouts, straining 
their eyes out over the steely surge, pick up 
what appears to be a spar. But no. The 
water is rushing on either side of it like a mill 
race. A periscope. 

There is a hurry of feet on the bridge. The 
navigating officer seizes the engine-room tele- 
graph and signals full speed ahead. While the 
ship groans and lists under the sudden turn at 
high speed, the ammunition-hoists drone as they 
bring powder and shell up to gun and turret. 
From the range-finding and plotting-stations 
come orders to the sight-setters, and in an in- 
stant there is a stupendous roar as every gun 
on the port side sends forth its steel messenger. 

Again and again comes the broadside, while 
the ocean for acres about the periscope boils 
with the steel rain. It is much too hot for the 
submarine which sinks so that the periscope 
is invisible. From the plotting-stations come 
orders for a change of range, and on the sea a 



"TORPEDO !" 193 

mile or so away rise huge geysers which pause 
for a moment, glistening in the light of the new 
sun, and then fall in spray to the waves, whence 
they were lifted by the hurtling projectiles. The 
shells do not ricochet. "Where they hit they 
dig," to quote a navy man. This is one of the 
inventions of the war, the non-ricochet shell. 
One may easily imagine how greatly superior 
are the shells that dig to those that strike the 
water and then glance. Then comes the cry: 

"Torpedo!" 

All see it, a white streak upon the water, cir- 
cling from the outer rim of shell-fire on a wide 
arc, so as to allow for the speed of the battle- 
ship. With a hiss the venomous projectile 
dashes past the bow, perhaps thirty yards away. 
Had not the battleship swung about on a new 
course as soon as the vigilant lookout descried 
the advancing torpedo, it would have been a 
fair hit amidships. As it was, the explosive 
went harmlessly on its way through the open 
sea. A short cheer from the crew marks the 
miss, and the firing increases in intensity. 
The battleship so turns that her bow is in the 
direction of the submarine, presenting, thus, a 



194 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

mark which may be hit only through a lucky 
shot, since the submarine is a mile away. Ac- 
curate shooting even at a mile is expected of 
torpedo-men when the mark is a broadside, 
but hitting a "bow-on" object is a different 
matter. 

Two more torpedoes zip past, and then over 
the seas comes bounding a destroyer, smoke 
bellying from her funnels. She is over the 
probable hiding-place of the submarine, and a 
great explosion and a high column of water tell 
those on the battleship that she has released a 
depth-bomb. Suddenly a signal flutters to the 
stay of the destroyer. The crew of the battle- 
ship cheer. There is no more to fear from that 
submarine, for oil is slowly spreading itself over 
the surface of the ocean — oil and pieces of 
wreckage. 

The dawn establishes itself fully. The battle- 
ship resumes her course toward the appointed 
rendezvous. 

Our navy has always held the idea that the 
Germans could be routed out from their sub- 
marine bases, has believed that, after all, that is 
the one sure way of ridding the seas of the 



THE TORPEDO QUESTION 195 

Kaiser's pirates for good. It may be assumed 
that the recent attacks of the British upon Os- 
tend and Zeebrugge, as a cover to blocking the 
canal entrances through sinking old war-ships, 
were highly approved by Vice-Admiral Sims. 
Secretary Daniels has considered the advisa- 
bility of direct methods in dealing with the 
German Navy. No doubt the temptation has 
been great, if only because of the fact that with 
the British and American and French navies 
combined, we have a force which could stand 
an appreciable amount of destruction and yet 
be in a position to cope with the German fleet. 
Yet, of course, that is taking chances. And: 

"It is all very well to say 'damn the tor- 
pedoes,'" said Secretary Daniels, in discussing 
this point, "but a navy cannot invite annihila- 
tion by going into mined harbors, and ships can 
do little or nothing against coast fortifications 
equipped with 14-inch guns. Experience at 
Gallipoli emphasizes this fact. And yet"— 
here the secretary became cryptic — "there is 
more than one way to kill a cat. No place is 
impregnable. Nothing is impossible." 

The British showed how damage might be 



196 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

dealt naval bases supposedly secure under the 
guns of fortifications, but something more than 
a sally will be necessary to smoke out the Ger- 
man fleet, or to root out the nests of submarines 
along the coast of Belgium. Again, there is the 
theory that eventually the Germans will come 
out and give battle. There is a psychological 
backing for this assumption, for the irksomeness 
of being penned up wears and wears until it is 
not to be borne. At least this seems to have 
been the case in blockades in past wars, notably 
the dash of Admiral Cervera's squadron from 
Santiago Harbor. 

But when the Germans come it will be no 
such forlorn hope as that — at least not accord- 
ing to the German expectation; what they ex- 
pect, however, and what they may get are con- 
tingencies lying wide apart. 

In connection with our far-flung naval policy 
the establishment of a naval base on the Azores 
Islands was announced last spring. The ar- 
rangement was made with the full consent of 
Portugal, and the design was the protection of 
the Atlantic trade routes to southern Europe. 
Guns have already been landed on the island, 



THE AZORES STATION 197 

and fortifications are now in process of construc- 
tion. The station, besides being used as a 
naval base for American submarines, destroyers, 
and other small craft, will serve as an important 
homing-station for our airplanes, a number of 
which have already been assembled there. 

The establishment of this station greatly 
simplifies, the task of protecting the great trade 
routes, not only to southern Europe and the 
Mediterranean, but also returning traffic to 
South American and southern Gulf ports in the 
United States. 



CHAPTER X 

THE GREAT ATLANTIC FERRY COMPANY, INCORPORATED, 

BUT UNLIMITED FEAT OF THE NAVY IN REPAIRING THE 

STEAMSHIPS BELONGING TO GERMAN LINES WHICH WERE 

INTERNED AT BEGINNING OF WAR IN 1914 WELDING 

AND PATCHING TRIUMPH OF OUR NAVY WITH THE 

"VATERLAND" HER CONDITION KNOTS ADDED TO HER 

SPEED DAMAGE TO MOTIVE POWER AND HOW IT WAS 

REMEDIED FAMOUS GERMAN LINERS BROUGHT UNDER 

OUR FLAG 

IN an address delivered not long ago, Admiral 
Gleaves, commander-in-chief of the United 
States Cruiser and Transport Force, referred 
to "The Great Atlantic Ferry Company, In- 
corporated, but Unlimited." He referred to 
our transport fleet, of course, a fleet which, 
under naval supervision and naval operation, 
has safely transported more than a million of 
our soldiers to France. When the history of 
the war finally comes to be written, our success 
in the handling of oversea transportation will 
not be the least bright among the pages of that 
absorbing history. 

When the European nations first went to war 
in 1914 I happened to be at the Newport Naval 

198 



AMERICAN SHIPS 199 

Training Station, and I asked an officer what 
would happen if we went into the war. 

"Not much," he said. "We would stand on 
our shores and the Germans on theirs and 
make faces at each other." 

Events have proved that he was not looking 
into the future wisely, not taking into account 
the enormous energy and get-things-doneness 
of Secretary Daniels and his coadjutors. Not 
only did the Navy Department send our de- 
stroyer fleet to the war zone — the Allied officers, 
believing co-operation of the sort not feasible, 
had neither requested nor expected this — but 
performed many other extraordinary feats, 
among them the equipping of transports to 
carry our men to France, and the conduct of the 
service when they were ready. 

We had only a fair number of American steam- 
ships adapted for the purpose, but lying in our 
ports were interned German and Austrian ves- 
sels aggregating many hundreds of thousands 
of tons. From 1914 until we entered the war 
commuters on North River ferry-boats seemed 
never weary of gazing at the steamships lying 
in the great North German Lloyd and Hamburg- 



200 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

American line piers in Hoboken. There was a 
small forest of masts and funnels appearing 
above the pier sheds, while many a graceful 
stern protruded out beyond the pier lines into 
the river. 

Among them was the great Vaterland, the 
largest vessel in the world, and the outward and 
visible expression of that peaceful maritime 
rivalry between Great Britain and the German 
Empire, which in the transatlantic lanes as in 
the waters of all the seven seas had interested 
followers of shipping for so many years. There 
was, so far as passenger traffic was concerned, 
the rivalry for the blue ribbon of the sea — the 
swiftest ocean carrier, a fight that was waged 
between Great Britain and Germany from the 
placid eighties to the nineties, when the Ger- 
mans brought out the Deutschland, and later 
the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, the Kaiser Wil- 
Iftelm II — all champions — whose laurels were to 
be snatched away by the Mauretania and the 
Lusitania — the two speed queens — when war 
ended competition of the sort. 

But the contest in speed had, to an extent, 
been superseded by the rivalry of size, a struggle 



OCEAN LINERS 201 

begun by the White Star Line when the great 
Oceanic slipped past quarantine in the early 
1900's, and carried on by that line, by the 
Atlantic Transport Line, and by the German 
companies with unceasing vigor. Great carry- 
ing capacity and fair speed were the desiderata, 
and the studious Germans were quick to see 
that it was a far more profitable battle to wage, 
since speed meant merely advertising, with a 
more or less slight preponderance in the flow of 
passenger patronage to the line which owned 
the latest crack greyhound, whereas size meant 
ability to carry greater cargoes, and thus en- 
hanced earning capacity. 

So great hulls were the order of the years pre- 
ceding 1914. There came the new Baltic, the 
new Cymric, the new Adriatic of the White Star 
Line, and for the Germans there came the 
Amerika and other craft of that type. Finally 
there was the Titanic and her ill-fated maiden 
voyage; the Cunarder Aquitania, and the 
Vaterland, and the Imperator, which bore the 
German ensign. These facts, presented not 
altogether in chronological order, are necessary 
to give the reader an idea of the manner in 



OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

which the Americans were taking back seats 
in the unceasing fight for commercial maritime 
supremacy. It is quite likely, so far back was 
our seat, that the Germans held little respect 
for our ability, either to man or to fit the im- 
mense number of German vessels in our harbors. 
In truth, the events that followed our entrance 
into the war showed just how supreme the con- 
tempt of the Germans was for our knowledge 
of things nautical. 

We are about to record just how erroneous 
that attitude of the Germans was, but wish 
first to point out that they had failed to take 
into consideration the fact that at Annapolis is 
situated a school of the sea that asks nothing 
of any similar school in the world, and that 
they had also failed to note that, while we had 
not gone in heavily for shipping, we have been 
rather effective in other lines which in event of 
emergency might be brought to bear upon the 
problem of correcting such deficiencies as might 
exist in our store of modern nautical tradition. 

Well, while the German waged their unre- 
stricted warfare on the sea, those German ves- 
sels lay at Hoboken and at other ports of the 



GERMAN VESSELS 203 

country, gathering the rust and barnacles of 
disuse. Then one day Congress spoke defi- 
nitely, and the next morning North River ferry 
voyagers saw lying off the German docks a 
torpedo-boat destroyer flying the American 
flag. Some days later the American flag floated 
over the taffrails of the Vaterland, the Kaiser 
Wilhelm II, and other Teutonic craft. Their 
employment in the way of providing transporta- 
tion of our soldiers, of course, was contemplated. 
In fact, the accession to our marine of such a 
large number of hulls seemed to provide for us 
all the necessary means which otherwise we 
would have lacked. 

But not so fast. When our officers began to 
look over these German craft they found that 
they were in a woful condition, not so much 
because of disuse as because of direct damage 
done to them by the German crews who had 
been attached to the ships ever since they were 
laid up in 1914. There is evidence in Wash- 
ington that the German central authorities 
issued an order for the destruction of these 
ships which was to be effective on or about 
February 1, 1917 — simultaneous, in other words, 



204 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

with the date set for unrestricted warfare. 
There is not the slightest doubt that the pur- 
pose of the order was to cause to be inflicted 
damage so serious to vital parts of the ma- 
chinery of all German vessels in our ports, that 
no ship could be operated within a period of 
time ranging from eight months to two years, 
if at all. 

But the Germans miscalculated, as already 
set forth. We took over the 109 German ves- 
sels in April, and by December 30 of that year, 
1917, all damage done to them had been re- 
paired and were in service, adding more than 
500,000 tons gross to our transport and cargo 
fleets. In general the destructive work of the 
German crews consisted of ruin which they hoped 
and believed would necessitate the shipping of 
new machinery to substitute for that which was 
battered down or damaged by drilling or by dis- 
mantlement. 

To have obtained new machinery, as a matter 
of fact, would have entailed a mighty long proc- 
ess. First, new machinery would have had to 
be designed, then made, and finally installed. 
These would have been all right if time was un- 



EXPERTS CONVENE 205 

limited. But it was not; it was, on the other 
hand, extremely limited. The army wished to 
send troops abroad, the Allies were pleading for 
men, and the only way to get them over in time 
to do anything was to do quick repair jobs on 
the damaged vessels. But how? Investiga- 
tion revealed how thorough the work of the 
German seamen — now enjoying themselves in 
internment camps — had been. Their destruc- 
tive campaign had been under headway for two 
months, and they had thus plenty of time in 
which to do all sorts of harm, ranging from the 
plugging of steam-pipes to the demolition of 
boilers by dry firing. 

The Shipping Board experts were the first to 
go over the German craft, and as a result of 
their survey it was announced that a great deal 
of new machinery would have to be provided, 
and that a fair estimate of the work of remedy- 
ing the damage inflicted would be eighteen 
months. But this was too long, altogether so. 
The officers of the Navy Bureau of Steam En- 
gineering took a hand, and finally decided that 
it would be possible to clear the ships for ser- 
vice by Christmas of that year. (As a matter 



206 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

of record, the last of the 109 ships was ordered 
into service on Thanksgiving Day.) 

To accomplish the purposes they had in mind, 
the Navy Department engaged the services of 
all available machinery welders and patchers, 
many of whom were voluntarily offered by the 
great railroad companies. Most of the time that 
was required was due not so much to actual re- 
pair work as to the devious and tedious task of 
dismantling all machinery from bow to stern 
of every ship in order to make certain that every 
bit of damage was discovered and repaired. 
In this way all chance of overlooking some act 
of concealed mutilation was obviated. 

It would appear that explosives were not 
used in the process of demolition by the Ger- 
mans, but at the time the engineers could not 
be sure of this, and as a consequence as they 
worked they were conscious of the danger of 
hidden charges which might become operative 
when the machinery was put to the test, or 
even while the work of dismantling and inspec- 
tion was being carried on. There were, however, 
discovered, as a result of this rigid investigation 
of every mechanical detail, many artful cases 



GERMAN TRICKS 207 

of pipe-plugging, of steel nuts and bolts con- 
cealed in delicate mechanical parts, of ground 
glass in oil-pipes and bearings, of indicators that 
were so adjusted as to give inaccurate readings, 
of fire-extinguishers filled with gasolene — in fact, 
the manifold deceits which the Germans prac- 
tised would make a chapter of themselves. 

Suffice to say, that through painstaking in- 
vestigation every trick was discovered and cor- 
rected. On each vessel there was no boiler 
that was not threaded through every pipe for 
evidence of plugging, no mechanism of any 
sort that was not completely dismantled, in- 
spected, and reassembled. On one ship the 
engineers chanced to find a written record of 
the damage inflicted. In every other case the 
search for evidence of sabotage was blind. 
This memorandum in the case of the one ship 
was evidently left on board through an over- 
sight, and written in German, was a veritable 
guide-book for our engineers. In order that the 
reader may have some idea of the sort of dam- 
age done, the following extracts from that 
memorandum of destructiveness is herewith 
presented : 



208 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

"Starboard and port high pressure cylinders 
with valve chest; upper exhaust outlet flange 
broken off. (Cannot be repaired.) " 

"Starboard and port second intermediate 
valve chest; steam inlet flange broken off. 
(Cannot be repaired.) " 

"First intermediate pressure starboard ex- 
haust pipes of exhaust line to second intermedi- 
ate pressure flange broken off. (Cannot be re- 
paired.) " 

" Starboard and port low pressure exhaust pipe 
damaged. (Cannot be repaired.) " 

Naval officers are pleased to recall that every 
single one of these supposedly irreparable in- 
juries was not only repaired, but speedily re- 
paired. Patching and welding were the answer 
to the problem they presented. Both these 
valuable methods had never been employed in 
marine engineering, although they had been 
used by the railroads for some fifteen years. 
There are three methods; or, rather, three 
methods were employed: electric welding, oxy- 
acetylene welding, and ordinary mechanical 
patching. After repairs were effected tests of 
the machinery were first made at the docks 




From a photograph copyright 1>i/ International Film Service. 

Repairing a damaged cylinder of a German ship for federal service. 



THE LEVIATHAN 209 

with the ships lashed to the piers, the propellers 
being driven at low speed. Later each vessel 
was taken to sea for vigorous trial tests, and 
everything was found to be perfectly satisfac- 
tory. Indeed, it has been asserted that several 
knots were added to the best speed that the 
Vaterland — renamed Leviathan — ever made. 

Of course the crew of the Vaterland had spared 
no pains in fixing that great ship so that she 
could not be used; even so they had less to do 
than the engine forces of other craft, for the 
reason that the vessel was in extremely bad re- 
pair as she was. As a consequence, she was 
one of the German ships that were least muti- 
lated. When repairs were completed and it 
was time for her trial trip, her commander, a 
young American naval officer, was ordered to 
test the big craft in every way, to utilize every 
pound of steam pressure, and to try her out to 
the limit. For, if there was anything wrong 
with the vessel, the navy wished to know it 
before she fared forth with troops on board. 

The Leviathan stood the test. And to-day 
we all know what a great part she has played in 
carrying our soldiers to France. She is, in fact, 



210 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

a far better boat than on her maiden trip, for 
our engineers were surprised to find how sloppily 
she had been built in certain respects. 

In preparing her for sea the engineers found 
it necessary to overhaul, partially redesign and 
reconstruct many important parts of the Levia- 
than's engines. As in her case, the most serious 
typical damage was done by breaking the cylin- 
ders, valve-chests, circulating pumps, steam and 
exhaust units in main engines; dry-firing boil- 
ers, and thus melting the tubes and distorting 
furnaces, together with easily detectable in- 
stances of a minor character, such as cutting 
piston and connecting rods and stays with 
hack saws, smashing engine-room telegraph 
systems, and removing and destroying parts 
which the Germans believed could not be dupli- 
cated. Then there was sabotage well concealed : 
rod stays in boilers were broken off, but nuts 
were fastened on exposed surfaces for purposes 
of deception; threads of bolts were destroyed, 
the bolts being replaced with but one or two 
threads to hold them, and thus calculated to 
give way under pressure. Piles of shavings and 
inflammable material with cans of kerosene 



RAILROAD MEN CALLED 211 

near suggested the intention to burn the vessels, 
intentions thwarted by our watchfulness, while 
the absence of explosives has been accounted 
for purely on the ground of the risk which the 
crews would have run in attempting to purchase 
explosive materials in the open market. 

No great amount of damage was done to the 
furnishings or ordinary ship's fittings. De- 
structiveness was similar in character through- 
out all the vessels and involved only important 
parts of the propulsive mechanism or other 
operating machinery. 

We have spoken of the investigation of the 
vessels by Shipping Board engineers. They 
were appointed by the board not only to make 
a survey, but to superintend repairs. The col- 
lector of the port of New York also named a 
board of engineers (railroad engineers) to in- 
vestigate the damage done the German ships, 
and to recommend repairs through the agency 
of welding. The railroad men, after due study, 
believed that their art could be applied to as 
great advantage on ships as upon locomotives. 
The Shipping Board engineers recommended, 
on the other hand, the renewal of all badly 



212 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

damaged cylinders. The railroad engineers, on 
the other hand, set forth their opinion that all 
damaged cylinders could be reclaimed and made 
as good as new. 

As a result of this difference of opinion, noth- 
ing was done until the larger German craft were 
turned over to the Navy Department to be 
fitted as transports, in July of 1917. It was 
then decided to use welding and patching on 
the vessels. 

In no cases were the repairs to the propulsive 
machinery delayed beyond the time necessary 
to equip these ships as transports. Electric and 
acetylene welding is not a complicated art in 
the hands of skilled men; for patching a hole, 
or filling the cavity of a great crack in a cylinder, 
say by electric welding, may be compared to a 
similar operation in dental surgery. 

Returning to the Leviathan s faulty German 
construction, be it said that the opinion of the 
navy engineers who overhauled her, was that 
inferior engineering had been practised in her 
construction. There are on this craft four 
turbine engines ahead, and four astern, on four 
shafts. All the head engines were in good 



THE VATERLAND 213 

shape, but all the astern engines were damaged. 
But the main part of the damage had resulted 
more to faulty operation of the engines than to 
malicious damage. Cracks were found in the 
casing of the starboard high-pressure backing 
turbine, cracks of size so great as to make it 
certain that this engine had not been used in 
the last run of that vessel on transatlantic ser- 
vice in 1914. There was discovered on the 
Vaterland, or Leviathan, documentary evidence 
to prove this, and it also appeared from this 
paper that on her last trip to this country the 
vessel had not averaged twenty knots. It may 
be that the German ship-builders had hurried 
too swiftly in their strenuous efforts to produce 
a bigger, if not a better, steamship than the 
British could turn out. 

Forty-six of the Vaterland' 's boilers showed 
evidence of poor handling. They were not 
fitted with the proper sort of internal feed- 
pipes. All these defects, defects original with 
the steamship, were repaired by the Americans. 
In addition, evidences of minor attempts to dis- 
able the Vaterland were found, such, for instance, 
as holes bored in sections of suction-pipes, the 



214 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

holes having been puttied and thus concealed. 
Things of the sort afforded ample reason for a 
thorough overhaul of the vast mass of machinery 
aboard the steamship. But eventually she was 
ready for her test and her performance on a trial 
trip to southern waters showed how skilful had 
been the remedial measures applied. 

Aboard the Leviathan as other big German 
liners, such as the Amerika, President Grant, 
President Lincoln (recently sunk by a German 
torpedo while bound for this country from 
France), the George Washington, and other ves- 
sels fitted as troop and hospital ships, and the 
like, naval crews were placed, and naval offi- 
cers, of course, in command. They have proved 
their mettle, all. They have shown, further, 
that when we get ready to take our place, after 
the war, among the nations that go in heavily 
for things maritime, we shall not be among the 
last, either in point of resourcefulness or in- 
trepidity. 

Civilian sailormen who have sailed on vessels 
commanded by naval officers have been inclined 
to smile over the minutia of navy discipline 
and have expressed doubt whether the naval 



HANDLING THE LEVIATHAN 215 

men would find a certain rigidity any more 
useful in a given situation than the civilian sea- 
men would find a looser ordered system. We 
can but base judgment on facts, and among the 
facts that have come under the writer's observa- 
tion, was the difficulty which the German officers 
of the Vaterland encountered in taking their 
vessel into her dock in the North River. The 
very last time they attempted it the great hulk 
got crosswise in the current in the middle of the 
stream, and caused all sorts of trouble. 

Our naval officers, however, made no difficulty 
at all in snapping the steamship into her pier. 
She steams up the Hudson on the New York 
side, makes a big turn, and lo ! she is safely 
alongside her pier. Any seafaring man will tell 
you that this implies seamanly ability. 

Following is a list of the larger German ships 
which were repaired by the navy engineers, 
with the names under which they now sail: 

FORMER NAME PRESENT NAME 

Amerika America. 

Andromeda Bath. 

Barbarossa Mercury. 

Breslau Bridgeport, 



216 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

FORMER NAME PRESENT NAME 

Cincinnati Covington* (sunk). 

Frieda Lenhardt Astoria. 

Friedrich der Grosse Huron. 

Geier Schurz. 

George Washington name retained. 

Grosser Kurfurst Aeolus. 

Grunewald Gen. G. W. Goethals. 

Hamburg Powhattan. 

Hermes name retained. 

Hohenfelde Long Beach. 

Kiel Camden. 

Kaiser Wilhelm II Agamemnon. - 

Koenig Wilhelm II Madawaska. 

Kronprinz Wilhelm Von Steuben. 

Kronprezessin Cecelie Mount Vernon. 

Liebenfels Hoiston. 

Locksun Gulf port. 

Neckar Antigone. 

Nicaria Pensacola. 

Odenwald Newport News. 

President Kuttery. 

President Grant name retained. 

President Lincoln name retained (sunk). 

Prinzess Irene Pocahontas. 

Prinz Eitel Friedrich DeKalb. 

Rhein Susquehanna. 

Rudolph Blumberg Beaufort. 

Saxonia Savannah. 

Staatsskretar Samoa. 

Vaterland Leviathan. 

Vogensen Quincy. 

* Is not this rather a reflection upon a perfectly good American city ? 



CHAPTER XI 

CAMOUFLAGE — AMERICAN SYSTEM OF LOW VISIBILITY AND 

THE BRITISH DAZZLE SYSTEM AMERICANS WORKED OUT 

PRINCIPLES OF COLOR IN LIGHT AND COLOR IN PIGMENT 

BRITISH SOUGHT MERELY TO CONFUSE THE EYE — BRITISH 
SYSTEM APPLIED TO SOME OF OUR TRANSPORTS 

WHILE our naval vessels, that is to say 
war-ships, have adhered to the lead- 
gray war painty the Navy Department has not 
declined to follow the lead of the merchant 
marine of this country and Great Britain in 
applying the art of camouflage to some of its 
transports, notably to the Leviathan, which, 
painted by an English camoufleur, Wilkinson, 
fairly revels in color designed to confuse the 
eyes of those who would attack her. A great 
deal has been written about land camouflage, but 
not so much about the same art as practised on 
ships. Originally, the purpose was the same — 
concealment and general low visibility —at least 
it was so far as the Americans were concerned. 
The British, on the other hand, employed camou- 
flage with a view to distorting objects and fa- 

217 



218 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

tiguing the eye, thus seriously affecting range- 
finding. The British system was known as the 
"dazzle system," and was opposed to the Ameri- 
can idea of so painting a vessel as to cause it 
to merge into its background. 

The American camouflage is based on scien- 
tific principles which embody so much in the 
way of chromatic paradox as to warrant setting 
forth rather fully, even though at the present 
time, for good and sufficient reasons relating to 
German methods of locating vessels, the Ameri- 
cans have more or less abandoned their ideas 
of low visibility and taken up with the dazzle 
idea. 

A mural painter of New York, William An- 
drew Mackay, who had long experimented in 
the chemistry of color (he is now a member of 
the staff of navy camoufleurs), had applied a 
process of low visibility to naval vessels long 
before war broke out in Europe. The basis of 
his theory of camouflage was that red, green, 
and violet, in terms of light, make gray; they 
don't in pigment. 

The Mackay scheme of invisibility will be 
easily grasped by the reader if we take the ex- 



RED, GREEN, AND VIOLET 219 

ample of the rainbow. The phenomenon of the 
rainbow, then, teaches us that what we know 
to be white light, or daylight, is composed of 
rays of various colors. If an object, say the 
hull of a vessel at sea, prevents these rays from 
coming to the eye, that hull, or other object, is 
of course clearly defined, the reason being that 
the iron mass shuts out the light-rays behind it. 
Mr. Mackay discovered that by applying to the 
sides of a ship paint representing the three 
light-rays shut out by the vessel's hull — red, 
green, and violet — the hull is less visible than 
a similar body painted in solid color. 

In a series of experiments made under the 
supervision of the Navy Department after we 
entered the war an oil-tanker ship was so suc- 
cessfully painted in imitation of the color-rays 
of light that, at three miles, the tanker seemed 
to melt into the horizon. The effect was noted 
in the morning, at noon, and in the evening. 
In the case of various big liners, more than 500 
feet long, no accurate range could be made for 
shelling at from three to five miles — the usual 
shelling distance — while at eight miles the vessels 
melted into the ocean-mists. 



220 OUR NAVY IN THR WAR 

But the first trials of the system were con- 
ducted at Newport, in 1913, in conjunction with 
Lieutenant Kenneth Whiting, of the submarine 
flotilla. After a period experiments were con- 
tinued at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. In 1915 
Commander J. O. Fisher, U. S. N., painted the 
periscope of his submarine — the K-6 — with the 
colors of the spectrum. Mr. Mackay got in 
touch with this officer and explained the work 
he had done with Lieutenant Whiting. Fisher, 
deeply interested, invited the painter to deliver 
a series of lectures to the officers of the submarine 
flotilla at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. 

With the aid of a Maxwell disk — a wheel 
upon which colored cardboard is placed and 
then revolved — he demonstrated the difference 
between paint and light, as set forth in a book 
on the chemistry of color by the late Ogden N. 
Rood, of Columbia. He showed, for example, 
that yellow and blue in light make white, while 
yellow and blue in pigment make green. The 
bird colored blue and yellow will be a dull gray 
at a distance of 100 feet, and will blend perfectly 
against the dull gray of a tree-trunk at, perhaps, 
a less distance. The parrot of red, green, and 



LOW VISIBILITY 221 

violet plumage turns gray at 100 feet or more, 
the eye at that distance losing the ability to 
separate the three color-sensations. 

It is upon this principle, then, that ships 
painted in several varieties of tints and shades 
form combinations under different lights that 
cause them to waver and melt into the sea and 
sky. They seem to melt, to be more explicit, 
because the craft so painted is surrounded by 
tints and shades that are similar to those em- 
ployed in painting the craft. 

Vessels thus painted, as seen at their docks, 
present a curious aspect. At their water-lines, 
and running upward for perhaps twenty feet, 
are green wave-lines, and above, a dappled ef- 
fect of red, green, and violet, which involve 
not only the upper portions of the hull, but 
the life-boats, masts, and funnels. 

This, then, as said, was the American idea as 
first applied by Mr. Mackay, and which would 
have been greatly amplified had not listening 
devices been so perfected as to render it un- 
necessary for the Germans to see until their 
quarry was so near, say a mile or two, that no 
expedient in the way of low visibility would 



222 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

serve. It was then that our navy, which had 
been following experiments in camouflage, ac- 
cepted the dazzle system for some of its trans- 
ports, while retaining the leaden war-paint for 
other transports and for fighting craft. 

The dazzle system as applied on the Leviathan 
and other vessels under jurisdiction of the navy, 
has for its idea the disruption of outline and de- 
ception as to the true course a vessel is follow- 
ing. The writer saw the Leviathan under way 
shortly after she was camouflaged, and at a dis- 
tance of two miles it was utterly impossible to 
tell whether she was coming or going; and the 
observer could not tell whether she had three 
funnels or six, or only one. It was noted that 
as her distance from the observer became greater 
the vessel assumed a variety of effects. Once 
it seemed as though both bow and stern had 
dropped off, and finally the big craft suggested 
in the morning haze nothing so much as a cathe- 
dral set in the middle of the bay. 

Effects of this sort are produced by vertical 
stripes of black and white at bow and stern, 
by long, horizontal lines of black and blue, and 
by patches of various hues. One funnel is 



ZIGZAG COURSES 223 

gray, another blue and white, another all blue. 
There can be no question that the sum total of 
effect offends the eye and dazes the senses. 
Submarines have been known to make errors of 
eight degrees in delivering torpedoes at dazzle 
boats even at close range. 

In addition to camouflage experiments on one 
of our great inland lakes, the Navy Department 
also investigated other ideas relating to the self- 
protection of craft at sea. Among these was a 
device by which a vessel zigzags automatically 
as she proceeds on her ocean course. The ad- 
vantage of such an invention when the war 
zone is filled with submarines waiting for a 
chance for pot shots at craft is obvious. 

The Navy Department, in short, has neglected 
nothing that would tend to enhance the safety 
of our ships on the sea, and many valuable 
schemes have been applied. But when all is 
said and done these defensive elements are and, 
it seems, must remain subsidiary to the pro- 
tection as applied from without, the protection 
of swift destroyers with their depth-bombs, 
their great speed, and their ability quickly to 
manoeuvre. 



CHAPTER XII 

THE NAVAL FLYING CORPS WHAT THE NAVY DEPARTMENT 

HAS ACCOMPLISHED AND IS ACCOMPLISHING IN THE WAY 

OF AIR-FIGHTING EXPERIENCE OF A NAVAL ENSIGN 

ADRIFT IN THE ENGLISH CHANNEL SEAPLANES AND 

FLYING BOATS SCHOOLS OF INSTRUCTION INSTANCES 

OF HEROISM 

IN writing of aviation in the navy an incident 
which befell one of our naval airmen in the 
English Channel seems to demand primary 
consideration, not alone because of the dra- 
matic nature of the event, but because it sets 
forth clearly the nature of the work upon which 
our flying men of the navy entered as soon as 
the United States took hostile action against 
Germany. Our navy aviators, in fact, were the 
first force of American fighters to land upon 
European soil after war was declared. Here is 
the story as told by Ensign E. A. Stone, United 
States Naval Reserve, after he was rescued from 
the Channel, where with a companion he had 
clung for eighty hours without food and drink 
to the under-side of a capsized seaplane pontoon. 
"I left our station in a British seaplane as 

224 



IN THE CHANNEL 225 

pilot, with Sublieutenant Moore of the Royal 
Naval Air Service as observer, at 9 o'clock in 
the morning. Our duty was to convoy patrols. 
When two hours out, having met our ships 
coming from the westward, we thought we 
sighted a periscope ahead, and turned off in 
pursuit. We lost our course. Our engine 
dropped dead, and at 11.30 o'clock forced us 
to land on the surface of a rough sea. We had 
no kite nor radio to call for assistance, so we 
released our two carrier-pigeons. We tied a 
message with our position and the word 'Sink- 
ing' on each. The first, the blue-barred one, 
flew straight off and reached home. But the 
other, which was white-checked, lit on our 
machine and would not budge until Moore 
threw our navigation clock at him, which prob- 
ably upset him so that he failed us. 

"Heavy seas smashed our tail-planes, which 
kept settling. I saw that they were pulling the 
machine down by the rear, turning her over. 
We tore the tail-fabric to lessen the impact of 
the waves. It wasn't any use. The tail-flat 
was smashed and its box filled with water. 

"This increased the downward leverage and 



226 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

raised her perpendicularly in the air. At 2.30 
p. m. we capsized. We climbed up the nose and 
'over the top' to the under-side of the pontoons. 
Our emergency ration had been in the observer's 
seat at the back, but we had been so busy try- 
ing to repair the motor and save ourselves from 
turning over that we didn't remember this 
until too late. When I crawled aft for food 
Moore saw that I was only helping the machine 
to capsize. He yelled to me to come back and 
I did, just in time to save myself from being 
carried down with the tail and drowned. 

"From then on for nearly four days, until 
picked up by a trawler, we were continually 
soaked and lashed by seas, and with nothing to 
eat or drink. We had nothing to cling to, and 
so to keep from being washed overboard we 
got upon the same pontoon and hugged our 
arms about each other's bodies for the whole 
time. We suffered from thirst. I had a crav- 
ing for canned peaches. Twice a drizzle came 
on, wetting the pontoon. We turned on our 
stomachs and lapped up the moisture, but the 
paint came off, with salt, and nauseated us. 
Our limbs grew numb. From time to time the 



SIGHTED ! 227 

wreckage from torpedoed ships would pass. 
Two full biscuit-tins came close enough to swim 
for, but by then in our weakened state we knew 
that we would drown if we tried to get them. 
We did haul in a third tin and broke it open; it 
was filled with tobacco. 

"Every day we saw convoys in the distance 
and vainly waved our handkerchiefs. We had 
no signal-lights to use at night. Our watches 
stopped, and we lost all track of time. We 
realized how easy it was for a submarine out 
there to escape being spotted. On Sunday 
night we spied a masthead light and shouted. 
The ship heard and began to circle us. We saw 
her port light. Then when the crew were visi- 
ble on the deck of the vessel, she suddenly put 
out her lights and turned away. 

"'She thinks we are Huns,' said Moore. 

"'I hope she does/ said I. 'Then they'll 
send patrol-boats out to get us. We couldn't 
be worse off if we were Germans.' 

"But no rescue came. The next afternoon a 
seaplane came from the east. It was flying 
only 800 feet overhead, aiming down the Chan- 
nel. It seemed impossible that she could not 



228 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

sight us for the air was perfectly clear. She 
passed straight above without making any 
signal, flew two miles beyond, and then came 
back on her course. 

"'Her observer must be sending wireless 
about us,' I said. 

"'Yes, that is why we get no recognition,' 
said Moore, 'and now she's decided to go back 
and report.' 

"But that plane hadn't even seen us. Our 
spirits fell. We had been afraid of two things, 
being picked up by a neutral and interned, or 
captured by an enemy submarine. Now we 
even hoped that the enemy — that anything — ■ 
would get us, to end it all. 

"We sighted a trawler about 6 p. m. on Tues- 
day. She had been chasing a submarine, and 
so did not seem to take us very seriously at first. 
We waved at her half an hour before she changed 
her course. We were both too weak to stand 
up and signal. We could only rise on our 
knees. Moore's hands were too swollen to 
hold a handkerchief, but I had kept my gloves 
on and was able to do so. The trawler moved 
waril/ around us, but finally threw a life-pre- 



PIGEONS RELEASED 229 

server at the end of a line. I yelled that we 
were too weak to grasp it. She finally hove 
to, lowered a boat, and lifted us aboard. Then 
we collapsed. 

"I remember asking for a drink and getting 
water. The skipper would let us take only sips, 
but he left a bottle alongside me and I drained 
it. He gave us biscuits, but we couldn't chew 
or swallow them. We felt no pain until our 
clothing was ripped off and blood rushed into 
our swollen legs and arms. Moore lost six 
toes from gangrene in the hospital. My feet 
turned black, but decay did not set in." 

When the pigeon released by Stone and Moore 
returned to the base every machine from that 
seaplane-station, as well as from a station on the 
French coast, was sent out to search for the 
missing seaplane, while destroyers and patrol- 
vessels were notified to be on the lookout. 
Which shows, after all, how difficult the job of 
detecting such small objects as submarines is. 
Stone had enlisted as a seaman, and was trained 
in aviation. On December 11, 1917, he was 
detached from the air-station at Hampton 
Roads and ordered to France for duty, arriving 



230 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

there January 21, 1918. In February he was 
ordered to report to the commander of the 
United States naval forces at London for patrol 
duty in England. 

Which shows the way the Navy Department 
worked in with the French and British Admiral- 
ties, using either our own planes or those of our 
allies. 

When the navy's plans concerning the Ameri- 
can Naval Flying Corps are completed, it will 
have an air service of fully 125,000 men, of 
which 10,000 will be aviators. There will be 
10 ground men for every aviator. Observers, 
inspectors and specialists of various sorts will 
fill out the total. These seaplanes are of im- 
mense value in the war zones . They leave 
bases for regular patrol duty, watching the 
ocean carefully, and locating submersibles at a 
great height. Once a submarine is thus located 
the seaplane descends to the surface and noti- 
fies vessels of the patrol-fleet of the location of 
the craft, or in cases when the undersea craft 
is on or near the surface, the aviator will drop 
bombs upon the vessel. Seaplanes are also 
sent from the decks of naval vessels to scout 



NAVY AVIATORS 231 

the waters through which a fleet may be trav- 
elling, while large vessels serving as parent- 
ships for the smaller seaplanes — from which 
they fly and to which they return — ply the in- 
fested waters. The service is a valuable one, 
and a thrilling one, and only the best types of 
men were selected by the Navy Department to 
engage in it. 

In 1917 Congress appropriated $67,733,000 
for aviation for the navy, a sum which permitted 
the department to proceed on an extensive 
scale. And right here it may be said that the 
navy has fared much better than the army in 
the progressive development of air service. 
Within a year the flying personnel of the navy 
had grown to be twenty times greater than it 
was when we went to war, and where a year 
ago we had one training-school, we now have 
forty naval aviation-schools. 

The navy has not only strained every nerve 
to turn out aviators and to produce airplanes, 
but the development of improved types of planes 
has not been overlooked, and we now have 
abroad several fine types of seaplane as well 
as airplane. The seaplane is merely an air- 



232 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

plane with pontoons. It starts from the ground 
or from the deck of a vessel. 

Then there is the flying-boat, developed under 
naval auspices. This boat takes wing from the 
water, and is regarded as the most desirable 
form of aircraft for sea purposes. It is a tri- 
umphant instance of our ingenuity, and is 
built in two sizes, both effective under the pe- 
culiar conditions which may dictate the use 
either of one or the other. The navy has also 
developed a catapult arrangement for launch- 
ing seaplanes from the decks of war-ships. 
This is a moving wooden platform, carrying the 
seaplane, which runs along a track over the 
ship's deck. The platform drops into the sea, 
and the seaplane proceeds on its course through 
the air. 

The progress of the navy was so great in 
arranging for the home coast-defense aerial 
service that Secretary Daniels agreed to estab- 
lish air coast-patrol stations in Europe, and it 
was not long before our naval aviators were 
rendering signal service both along the French 
and the British coasts. There is the under- 
standing that the United States has already 



NAVY FACTORIES 233 

taken the lead in naval aviation, not in quan- 
tity, to be sure, but in quality and efficiency, 
as to which the presence of foreign experts 
studying our new improvements may be re- 
garded as confirmatory evidence. 

The Navy Department now has an aircraft 
factory of its own at Philadelphia, and there 
flying-boats are now being turned out. Also, 
five private plants throughout the country are 
working on navy aircraft exclusively. 

The Aircraft Board, which succeeded the Air- 
craft Production Board, is made up in three 
parts: a third from the navy, a third from the 
army, and a third civilian. This board is under 
the joint direction of the Secretaries of War 
and the Navy. 

The naval flying-schools are located at Pen- 
sacola, Fla., Miami, Fla., Hampton Roads, Va., 
Bay Shore, L. I., and San Diego, Cal. Some of 
the aviators are drawn from the regular naval 
forces, but the great majority are of the re- 
serves, young men from civil life, college men 
' and the like, who have the physical qualifica- 
tions and the nerve to fly and fight above tumul- 
tuous waters. 



234 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

The men training in the naval aviation-schools 
are enrolled as Second Class Seamen in the 
Coast Defense Reserve. Their status is similar 
to that of the midshipmen at Annapolis. Sur- 
viving the arduous course of training, they re- 
ceive commissions as ensigns; if they do not 
survive they are honorably discharged, being 
free, of course, to enlist in other branches of 
service. The courses last about six months, the 
first period of study being in a ground school, 
where the cadets study navigation, rigging, 
gunnery, and other technical naval subjects. 
Thence the pupil goes to a flight-school, where 
he learns to pilot a machine. Here, if he comes 
through, the young cadet is commissioned as 
an ensign L. All pilots in the Naval Reserve 
Flying Corps hold commissions, but not all of 
the pilots in the regular navy are commissioned 
officers, a few rating as chief petty officers. 

The men who act as observers — who accom- 
pany the pilots on their trips, taking photo- 
graphs, dropping bombs and the like — are not 
commissioned. They are selected from men 
already in the service, regular seamen, marines, 
reserves, or volunteers. Of course, these men 



ENSIGN READ 235 

have their opportunities of becoming pilots. 
The United States seaplanes carry extremely 
destructive weapons, which will not be de- 
scribed until after the war. The Germans, 
it may be assumed, know something about 
them. 

The spirit of our naval pilots, both students 
and qualified graduates, is of the highest, and 
foreign naval officers have been quick to express 
their appreciation of their services. When En- 
sign Curtis Read was shot down in February, 
1918, while flying over the French coast, his 
funeral was attended by many British army 
and navy officers, and by representatives of 
both branches of the French service. Besides 
the company of American sailors there were 
squads of French and British seamen, who 
marched in honor of the young officer. The 
city of Dunkirk presented a beautiful wreath 
of flowers. 

"Nothing," wrote Ensign Artemus Gates, 
captain-elect of Yale's 1917 football eleven, and 
a comrade of Read's in France, to. the young 
officer's mother, "could be more impressive 
than to see a French general, an admiral, 



236 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

British staff-officers, and many other officers of 
the two nations paying homage." 

The death of Ensign Stephen Potter, who was 
killed in a battle with seven German airplanes 
in the North Sea on April 25, 1918, followed a 
glorious fight which will live in our naval annals. 
Potter was the first of our naval pilots to bring 
down a German airplane, and indeed may have 
been the first American, fighting under the 
United States flag, to do this. His triumph was 
attained on March 19, 1918. Between that 
time and his death he had engaged in several 
fights against German airmen, causing them to 
flee. 

And in this country our course of training 
has been marked by many notable examples of 
heroism and devotion, none more so than the 
act of Ensign Walker Weed, who, after his plane 
had fallen in flames at Cape May, N. J., and 
he had got loose from his seat and was safe, 
returned to the burning machine and worked 
amid the flames until he had rescued a cadet 
who was pinned in the wreckage. It cost Weed 
his life, and the man he rescued died after 
lingering some days; but the act is none the 



BALLOON SERVICE 237 

less glorious because the gallant young officer 
gave his life in vain. 

Related to the aviation service, to the extent 
at least that they observe from an aerial post, 
are the balloon men of the navy, officers who 
go aloft with great gas-bags, which, when not 
in use, are carried on the decks of the larger 
war-ships engaged in work. From the baskets 
of these sausage-shaped balloons the observers, 
armed with telescopes and binoculars, the ocean 
and the ships of the convoy lying like a map 
below, sweep the surface of the water for lurk- 
ing submarines and enemy raiders. The bal- 
loons are attached to the war-ships, and are 
towed along through the air. Just how effec- 
tive this expedient is, is known only to the 
Navy Department, but the fact that it is re- 
tained argues for its usefulness. 

Convoyed merchant vessels steam in a wedge 
or V-shaped formation. At the apex is a de- 
stroyer, following which is an armored cruiser 
of the Colorado or Tennessee type. Astern of 
the cruiser is another destroyer, which tows the 
captive balloon at the end of a very light but 
strong steel wire. This balloon-towing destroyer 



238 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

really forms the point of the wedge formation. 
Behind it are placed the two diverging lines of 
merchant ships, which follow one another, not 
bow to stern, but in a sort of echelon position. 
Down through the centre of the wedge is a 
line of armed trawlers, while armed vessels 
steam outside the V. Somewhat astern of the 
convoy is another destroyer, which tows another 
captive balloon. As a final means of protection, 
destroyers fly about on each wing of the convoy. 



CHAPTER XIII 

ORGANIZATION OF THE NAVAL RESERVE CLASSES TAKING 

OVER OF YACHTS FOR NAVAL SERVICE WORK AMONG 

THE RESERVES STATIONED AT VARIOUS NAVAL CENTRES 

WALTER CAMP'S ACHIEVEMENT 

IN expanding the navy to meet war condi- 
tions, the regular personnel was increased, 
naval militia units of various States were taken 
into the service under the classification National 
Naval Volunteers, and volunteers were accepted 
in the following classes: Fleet Naval Reserve, 
made up of those who had received naval train- 
ing and had volunteered for four years. Naval 
Auxiliary Reserve, made up of seafaring men 
who had had experience on merchant ships. 
Naval Coast Defense Reserve, made up of citizens 
of the United States whose technical and prac- 
tical education made them fitted for navy-yard 
work, patrol, and the like. Volunteer Naval 
Reserve, made up of men who had volunteered, 
bringing into service their own boats. And 
finally, the Naval Reserve Flying Corps. 

239 



240 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

It is from these classes that have come the 
men to put our navy on a war footing; for while 
the reserve classifications brought thousands 
and hundreds of thousands of men into the ser- 
vice, the permanent enlisted strength was kept 
at the specified figure, 87,000, until last June, 
when Congress increased the allowance to 131,- 
485. This action was regarded as one of the 
most important taken since the country entered 
the war, inasmuch as it gave notice to the 
world that the United States in the future in- 
tends to have a fleet that will measure up to her 
prominent position in the world's affairs. It 
means, too, that the number of commissioned 
officers would be increased from 3,700, as at 
present arranged, to some 5,500, which will 
no doubt mean an opportunity for officers who 
are now in war service in the various reserve 
organizations. 

When we entered the war, a decision to send 
a number of our destroyers to France imposed 
upon the Navy Department the necessity of 
protecting our own coast from possible sub- 
marine attack. We had retained destroyers 
in this country, of course, and our battle and 



NAVAL DISTRICTS 241 

cruiser fleet was here; but a large number of 
mosquito craft, submarine-chasers, patrol-boats, 
and the like were urgently demanded. Several 
hundred fine yachts were offered to the Navy 
Department under various conditions, and in 
the Third (New York) District alone some 350 
pleasure craft adapted for conversion into war- 
vessels, were taken over. Some of these were 
sent overseas to join the patrol-fleet, more were 
kept here. Besides being used for patrol-work, 
yachts were wanted for mine-sweepers, harbor 
patrol-boats, despatch-boats, mine-layers, and 
parent-ships. They were and are manned al- 
most exclusively by the Naval Reserves, and 
operated along the Atlantic coast under the 
direction of officers commanding the following 
districts: First Naval District, Boston; Second 
Naval District, Newport, R. L; Third Naval 
District, New York City; Fourth Naval Dis- 
trict, Philadelphia; Fifth Naval District, Nor- 
folk, Va. 

Hundreds of sailors, fishermen, seafaring men 
generally, and yachtsmen joined the Naval 
Coast Defense Reserve, which proved to be an 
extremely popular branch of the service with 



OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

college men. Most of the reserves of this class 
— there were nearly 40,000 of them — were re- 
quired for the coast-patrol fleet, and they had 
enlisted for service in home waters. But when 
the need for oversea service arose the reserves 
made no objection at all to manning transports 
and doing duty on patrol, mine-laying, mine- 
sweeping, and other craft engaged in duty in 
the war zone. 

In the course of taking over yachts by the 
Navy Department, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who 
has been so efficient and untiring in his capacity 
as Assistant Secretary of the Navy, charged that 
yachtsmen were not helping the government, 
and were holding their craft for high prices. 
Probably this was the case in enough instances 
to make Mr. Roosevelt impatient, but it would 
seem that the large body of yacht-owners did 
their best, not only donating their yachts to the 
government or selling them at a fair price, but 
by themselves enlisting in the service. 

There were yachtsmen who, in addition to 
giving their boats, defrayed the cost of main- 
tenance. Great craft such as G. W. C. DrexePs 
Alcedo (already noted as sunk by a torpedo), 



YACHTS TAKEN OVER 243 

A. Curtiss James's Aloha, J. C. and A. N. 
Brady's Atlantic, A. C. Burrage's Aztec, I. T. 
Bush's Christabel, H. A. Loughlin's Corona, 
J. P. Morgan's Corsair, Robert T. Graves's 
Emetine, E. P. and J. W. Alker's Florence, 
Edgar Palmer's Guinevere, George F. Baker, Jr.'s 
Wacouta, W. L. Harkness's Cythera, Robert Goe- 
let's Nahma, J. G. Bennett's Lysistrata, John 
Borden's Kanawha, Henry Walter's Narada, 
Howard Gould's Niagara, Horace G. Dodge's 
Nokomis, Vincent Astor's Noma, Mrs. E. H. 
Harriman's Sultana, Morton F. Plant's Vanadis, 
P. W. Rouss's Winchester, Aphrodite, the O. H. 
Payne estate; F. G. Bourne's Alberta, and Ed- 
ward Harkness's Wakiva — these great yachts 
among other steam-driven palaces, passed into 
the hands of the Navy Department in one way 
or another, and have performed valiant service. 
Some of them, indeed, have ended their careers 
violently in service. 

The government ripped out the costly interiors 
and converted these panelled floating abodes of 
the wealthy into serviceable fighters, and no 
doubt will retain those that survive when the 
war is ended. There were instances where the 



244 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

owners of yachts and the Navy Department 
could not agree on prices to be paid. The naval 
authorities finally suggested that the owners 
should name one representative, and the Navy 
Department another, and terms thus agreed 
upon. It was not, however, until the Depart- 
ment appointed a special board, whose duty was 
to secure suitable boats without further delay, 
that affairs began to proceed smoothly. The 
first move was to have the International Mer- 
cantile Marine Company's shipping experts act 
as agents of the special board, and from that 
time on there was no further trouble. 

The Mercantile Marine experts not only 
brought about the transfer of yachts to the 
navy, but superintended alterations above and 
below deck, arming, outfitting, coaling, paint- 
ing, and provisioning the converted war-ships. 
While this was in progress the Navy Depart- 
ment was having built a fleet of submarine- 
chasers of the 110-foot class, which, together 
with the yachts taken over, offered abundant 
opportunities for oversea service, which the 
sailors enrolled in the Coast Defense Division 
were not slow to accept after they were requested 



MERCHANT VESSELS 245 

to transfer their enrolment from Class 4 to 
Class 2, under which classification they were 
eligible to be sent abroad. Thus thousands of 
young men who had enlisted for coast-patrol 
duty, were sent aboard transports, submarine- 
chasers, and war-ships generally, for service in 
the European war zones. 

And with this constant outflow of trained men 
from the various naval training-stations of the 
country, the influx of newly enlisted reserves 
into these schools gives assurance that the 
Navy Department will never be embarrassed 
for lack of material wherewith to man its boats. 
And there is the likelihood that as our new 
merchant vessels are launched and put into 
commission, they will be manned by reserves 
from the navy training-schools with officers 
furnished by the Deck School at Pelham Bay 
and the Engineers' School at Hoboken. The 
government, of course, is in complete control of 
the merchant marine; but in our present condi- 
tion many American ships have to be manned 
by aliens. It will be surprising if this state of 
affairs will not be corrected as swiftly as the 
Navy Department is able to do so, and thus we 



246 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

may expect to see our young seamen diverted 
in ever-increasing numbers to merchant vessels, 
the precise degree, of course, to be dependent 
upon the needs of the fighting vessels. Young 
officers, no doubt, will receive commands, and 
in general a thriving mercantile marine will be 
in readiness for operation when war ends. 

Our naval training-stations are models of 
businesslike precision and well-ordered pro- 
ficiency. Herein are taught everything from 
bread-baking and cooking to engineering, gun- 
nery, and other maritime accomplishments. 
Long before we had entered the war a deter- 
mination had been reached by individuals and 
organizations external to the Navy — and Army 
— Departments, to bring to the naval stations 
as many and as complete comforts and con- 
veniences of civilization as possible. 

Almost immediately after the American decla- 
ration of war, the purposes of the authors of this 
scheme were presented to Congress, and per- 
mission for them to carry out their mission was 
given through the formation of the sister com- 
missions, the Army and the Navy Commis- 
sions on Training Camp Activities. 



WALTER CAMP 247 

Although entirely separate in their work — 
one dealing entirely with the men in the army, 
the other with those in the navy camps — the 
same authority on organized humanitarian ef- 
fort, Raymond B. Fosdick of New York City, 
one of the original group with whom the plan 
originated, was chosen chairman of both. Each 
commission's work was divided among depart- 
ments or subcommissions. 

In the Navy Commission, one group, the 
Library Department, supplied the enlisted men 
of the navy stations, as far as possible, with 
books, another with lectures, another with music, 
vocal and instrumental, another with theatrical 
entertainments, including moving-pictures, and 
another subcommission directed the recreational 
sport. 

Mr. Walter Camp, for thirty years the moving 
spirit, organizer, adviser, and athletic strategist 
of Yale, was chosen chairman of the Athletic 
Department, with the title General Commis- 
sioner of Athletics for the United States Navy. 

Taking up his task in midsummer, 1917, 
three months after declaration of war by the 
United States, Mr. Camp at once brought his 



248 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

ability, experience, and versatility into play in 
organizing recreational sport in the navy sta- 
tions. By this time every naval district was 
fast filling with its quota of enlisted men, and 
the plan of the Navy Department to place an 
even hundred thousand men in the stations be- 
fore the close of the year was well along toward 
completion. 

Swept from college, counting-room, profes- 
sional office, and factory, often from homes of 
luxury and elegance, to the naval stations, where, 
in many cases arrangements to house them were 
far from complete, the young men of the navy 
found themselves surrounded by conditions 
to which they pluckily and patiently recon- 
ciled themselves, but which could not do 
otherwise than provoke restlessness and dis- 
comfort. 

Under these conditions the work of the Navy 
Commission was particularly timely and im- 
portant, and that of Mr. Camp was of conspicu- 
ous value through the physical training and 
mental stimulus which it provided for patriotic, 
yet half homesick young Americans, from whom 
not only material comfort and luxury, but en- 



ATHLETICS £49 

tertainment of all kinds, including recreational 
sport, had been taken. 

Mr. Camp defined the scope of the Athletic 
Department of the Commission as follows, in 
taking up his duties: 

"Our problem is to provide athletics for the 
men in order to duplicate as nearly as possible 
the home environment, produce physical fit- 
ness with high vitality, and in this we feel that 
we shall have the most generous and whole- 
souled co-operation from the Y. M. C. A., the 
Knights of Columbus, the War Camp Com- 
munity Service, and all the agencies that are 
established in and about the camps." 

Launching the movement to "duplicate home 
conditions" in recreational sport, Mr. Camp ap- 
pointed athletic directors in the largest districts 
during the fall, and in every one the programme 
of seasonal sport was carried out, comparable 
in extent and quality with that which every 
enlisted man in the stations would have enjoyed 
as participant or spectator in his native city or 
town, school or college, had he not entered mili- 
tary service. 

The athletic directors who were chosen were, 



250 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

in every case, experienced organizers of all- 
round sports, and several of them were former 
college coaches or star athletes. In the First 
District at Boston, George V. Brown, for thir- 
teen years athletic organizer for the Boston 
Athletic Association, was named; in the Second, 
at Newport, Doctor William T. Bull, the former 
Yale football coach and medical examiner; in 
the Third, Frank S. Bergin, a former Princeton 
football-player; in the Fourth, at League Island, 
Franklin T. McCracken, an athletic organizer 
of Philadelphia; and at the Cape May Station 
Harry T. McGrath, of Philadelphia, an all- 
round athlete. 

In the Fifth District, Doctor Charles M. 
Wharton, of Philadelphia, a prominent neurolo- 
gist and University of Pennsylvania football 
coach, took charge late in the fall, resigning in 
April, 1918, to become field-secretary of the 
Navy Commission on Training Camp Activities, 
and being succeeded by Louis A. Young, of 
Philadelphia, a former University of Pennsyl- 
vania football-player, captain, and all-round 
athlete. 

In the Sixth District, at Charleston, S. C, 



SPORTS DIRECTORS 251 

Walter D. Powell, a former University of Wis- 
consin football-player, and later athletic director 
at Western Reserve University, was placed in 
charge of the programme, and at the Great 
Lakes Station, Herman P. Olcott, who had been 
football coach at Yale and athletic director at 
the University of Kansas, began his work in 
October. 

Arthur C. Woodward, formerly interscholas- 
tic athletic organizer in Washington, was placed 
in charge of the Puget Sound Station in Bremer- 
ton; and Elmer C. Henderson, athletic director 
in Seattle high schools, was appointed to the 
Seattle Station. 

David J. Yates, of New York City, an all- 
round athlete and athletic supervisor, was ap- 
pointed director at Pensacola, combining the 
work of athletic organization with the physical 
training of the aviators in that station. 

Intensely practical and stimulating as well 
as picturesque and almost fascinating pro- 
grammes in their attractiveness were carried 
out during the fall at the larger stations. The 
Newport football eleven, captained by "Cupid" 
Black, the former Yale gridiron star, and con- 



252 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

taining such ail-American players as Schlachter, 
of Syracuse; Hite, of Kentucky; Barrett, of 
Cornell; and Gerrish, of Dartmouth; the Boston 
team, including in its membership Casey, En- 
right, and Murray, of Harvard; the League 
Island eleven, captained by Eddie Mahan, the 
former Harvard all-round player; and the Great 
Lakes team, largely composed of representative 
Western gridiron stars, played a series of games 
on the fields of the East and the Middle West, 
which lifted, temporarily, the curtain which 
seemed to have fallen on the college football 
heroes when they passed into naval service, and 
allowed the sport-loving public of America to 
again see them in athletic action. 

During the winter the value of the athletic 
department of the Commission on Training- 
Camp Activities to the Navy became clearer 
as the indoor programmes, which were organized 
by Commissioner Camp and his lieutenants, 
the athletic directors, were carried out. Box- 
ing, wrestling, swimming, hockey, basket-ball, 
and other athletic instructors were appointed 
to develop every kind of indoor sport until 
there were no nights when, in the large audi- 



MASS EXERCISES 253 

toriums of the navy stations, some programme 
of winter sport was not being given for the en- 
tertainment of the thousands of young men in 
camp. Mass sports were favored, the general 
rule being laid down that the chief value of 
every game lay in accordance with its ability 
to attract a larger or a smaller number of par- 
ticipants or spectators. 

Among the sports which were tried, boxing 
proved its value as the chief. Attracting crowds 
limited only by the size of the auditoriums, the 
boxing-bouts which were held, usually semi- 
weekly in all the stations, were a most divert- 
ing feature of winter life in camp. One reason 
for their popularity can be directly traced to 
their enforced use in the physical training of the 
stations. Lending themselves ideally to mass 
instruction, the boxing exercises were taught to 
classes usually numbering between 150 and 200 
persons, and the fact that every marine studied 
boxing contributed to the size and the interest 
of the crowds that packed the ringsides at the 
frequent bouts. 

The teaching of boxing was also emphasized 
for its life-saving value in a military sense. 



254 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

The maxim is taught that "every move of the 
boxer is a corresponding move by the bayonet- 
fighter." Thus, the "jab" corresponds to the 
"lunge," and the "counter" to the "parry." 
To illustrate this boxing instruction, and to 
apply it to bayonet-drill, a set of admirable 
moving-pictures was made, such clever pugi- 
lists as Johnnie Kilbane, Bennie Leonard, Kid 
McCoy, and Jim Corbett posing for the boxing, 
and Captain Donovan, the eminent English 
bayonet instructor, for the bayonet films, which 
were exhibited for instruction purposes in ev- 
ery navy station. Boxing tournaments, station 
championships, and army-navy championship 
bouts were given with crowded houses every- 
where. 

Early in the winter Commissioner Camp gave 
directions for standardized sets of instruction in 
both boxing and wrestling, and as a result, in 
every camp in the country the groups of navy 
men were taught the same methods of rudi- 
mentary boxing for their value in a military 
sense, as well as their value as recreational 
sports. 

Soon after the thousands of young men began 



SWIMMING 255 

gathering in the navy camps, the discovery was 
made that not half the number was able to 
swim. For men destined for sea life, this was 
a vital handicap, and early in the spring of 1918 
a campaign was launched to increase the number 
of swimming instructors and the facilities which 
were available for the instruction of the young 
men both in sea and river, as well as in pools 
and tanks, and it was decided to hold station 
tournaments, races, and all varieties of swim- 
ming events during the season, in conjunction- 
with such individual instruction as it was neces- 
sary to give novices in the art of swimming. 

Rowing was developed during the season of 
1918 to the extent which was made possible by 
the presence of cutters in the different stations. 
Wherever possible, crews were coached in the 
rudiments of rowing by old oarsmen. Racing 
between the cutter crews in whatever station 
was ordered for every available date, and some- 
times as many as twenty boats were lined up 
abreast, and were shot away for the brushes 
between the cutter crews in some of the larger 
stations, furnishing a variety of sport compara- 
ble only with the brilliant scenes at the inter- 



256 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

collegiate races over the Thames course at New 
London, or the Hudson at Poughkeepsie. 

As football reigned supreme in the fall pro- 
gramme of recreational sport, and boxing in the 
winter, baseball furnished the greatest solace 
for the men of the navy marooned from city 
and college games. Scattered through the sta- 
tions were former major and minor league and 
college players in abundance, and nines, vying 
in their intrinsic strength with major-league 
champions, were organized in every station. 
Jack Barry in the Boston District, "Toots" 
Schultz in the Newport, Phil Choinard in the 
Great Lakes, Davy Robertson in the Norfolk, 
Jack Hoey in the Charleston, and Paul Strand in 
the Seattle Districts, were a few of the stars of 
national reputation who headed the teams. 
More valuable, however, to the true purpose 
of the organization of recreational sports than 
the individual stars and the district teams were 
the leagues which were formed in the respective 
stations, for they kept every naval base engrossed 
in a wholesome athletic interest, and furnished 
natural relaxation from the exacting drill and 
drudgery of every-day routine. 



TRACK ATHLETICS 257 

Track athletic stars of college and amateur 
athletic organizations were scattered through 
every station, and the organization of track 
meets was begun as soon as the men of the navy 
reached the camps. In October, 1917, before 
some 15,000 people, the track men of the Boston 
Station took part in games on Boston Common, 
a track carnival was held in the Harvard Sta- 
dium a month later, and in every station of the 
country track tournaments were held during 
the season of 1918. 

For April 19, the anniversary of the battle of 
Lexington, a patriotic team relay race was or- 
dered for every station in the country by Com- 
missioner Camp. In the First District the 
route lay over the historic Marathon course 
from Ashland into Boston, and most of the 
teams represented either the army canton- 
ment at Camp Devens or the First Naval Dis- 
trict. In most instances the races were run 
from an army to a navy camp, messages being 
carried from the commanding officer in one to 
the similar officer in the other. Secretary 
Daniels of the navy witnessed the First Dis- 
trict event. 



258 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

In most cases the races were conducted as a 
feature and auxiliary in the Third Liberty Loan 
campaign, which was nearing its height, and 
proved a valuable factor in promoting the suc- 
cess of the drive. It is believed that this is the 
first national race which was ever held in every 
section of the United States at the request of 
one individual, and it was appropriate that the 
first of a series of such athletic events should 
be of a purely patriotic scope and a part of the 
national military service. 

Closely related to the work of Commissioner 
Camp in the naval stations was his successful 
attempt to secure for the aviators the use of 
skilful flight surgeons and college trainers to 
safeguard the physical condition of the airmen. 
At the annual conference of the National Col- 
legiate Association, which was held in New York 
City in December, 1917* Mr. Camp called at- 
tention to the fact that the conditioning of the 
aviators was similar to that of college athletes, 
and was just as vital; and, inasmuch as the 
physical safety of football-players and other 
college athletic contestants was successfully 
guaranteed by experienced trainers, he recom- 
mended that several of the best be selected from 



TRAINERS FOR FLIERS 259 

leading American universities to go to the avia- 
tion-fields and take charge of the conditioning 
of the fliers. Two months later, recommenda- 
tion was made by the aviation department that 
from ten to fifteen such trainers be named by 
Mr. Camp to go at once to the aviation-stations 
and pass judgment on the condition of the fliers 
before they were allowed to leave the ground. 
An unusually large number of deaths took place 
in the United States during practise flights of 
the aviators early in the spring of 1918, and in 
May the government authorized the appoint- 
ment of an adequate number of college trainers 
to carry out the work of conditioning the airmen. 
Before this time reports of conditions in England 
and France established the fact that more 
deaths of aviators had been caused by the 
flight of the airmen when in poor physical con- 
dition than by any defect in the flying-machine. 
In all, Mr. Camp's work has been adequately 
recognized by the Navy Department as of the 
greatest benefit, and the constant stream of 
testimony from the reserve seamen attached to 
the various stations that "there is no place like 
the navy," is, in some part due to the activities 
of this veteran Yale athlete and his associates. 



CHAPTER XIV 

THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS — FIRST MILITARY 
BRANCH OF THE NATIONAL SERVICE TO BE SANCTIONED 

BY CONGRESS LEAVING FOR THE WAR SERVICE OF 

THE MARINES IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE GLOBE DE- 
TAILS OF EXPANSION OF CORPS THEIR PRESENT SERVICE 

ALL OVER THE WORLD 

WHEN orders came for some 2,700 United 
States marines to go to France there was 
little circumstance, or general fuss and feathers, 
at the League Island Navy Yard, in Philadel- 
phia. The Marine Corps, which is under con- 
trol of the Navy Department, was quite used 
to such things. Through all the years when 
trouble had occurred in our island possessions, 
in the West Indies, Central America, or where 
not, it was the marines who received orders to 
start out and settle things. As a consequence, 
orders to go to France were merely in the line 
of the customary day's work. 

Thus the only ceremony characterizing the 
departure of Colonel Charles A. Doyen and his 
men from the navy-yard at Philadelphia, was 
a brief speech by Major-General George Barnett, 

260 



MARINES LEAVE 261 

commandant of the corps, to the officers of 
the field and staff of the overseas outfit, and to 
the company officers. No colors were unfurled. 
No reporters or press photographers were pres- 
ent. The regimental bandsmen went to war 
with their instruments cased and rifles over 
their shoulders. On the navy-yard parade- 
ground a sailor baseball nine from one of 
the battleships was at practice. The marines 
slipped away so quietly that the ball-players 
did not know until afterward that they had 
missed seeing the departure of 2,700 men bound 
for the battle-front. 

At 2.30 o'clock that afternoon the baseball- 
players had the parade-ground to themselves, 
and no one was in sight on the street in front of 
the home of the post commander of marines 
but a small boy in rompers, playing with a 
fox-terrier. A few seconds later the head of a 
column of soldiers of the sea, clad in khaki, and 
in heavy marching order, swung into that 
brick-paved street. The major-general com- 
mandant and a group of officers from head- 
quarters took up posts on the turf of the park- 
way beside the curb. A sergeant of marines, in 



262 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

khaki, came running across the parade-ground, 
set up a motion-picture camera, and began to 
crank. Another sergeant was snapping "stills," 
as the column came to a halt and faced about 
toward the group of officers. 

The company officers of the battalion stepped 
out in front of Major-General Barnett and 
saluted. Then the general spoke for a few min- 
utes in an every-day, conversational tone. He 
told the men that he trusted them, that he knew 
they would uphold the honor and high tradi- 
tions of tho corps when fighting in France 
under General Pershing. The officers saluted 
and stepped back to their places. The battalion 
stood at rigid attention for a moment. Then 
with a snap, rifles jumped to shoulders, squads 
swung into column formation, and the line 
passed swiftly down the street to the gate of 
the navy -yard. 

No cheering crowd greeted the marines as 
they emerged from the gateway, and only a 
few persons saw them board a train of day- 
coaches for a near-by port. The sun-browned 
fighting men, all veterans of campaigning in 
Hayti and Santo Domingo, waved their cam- 



AT THE NAVY-YARD 263 

paign hats from the windows and the train 
moved away. 

Half an hour later another battalion marched 
briskly down the same street from the end of a 
tree-lined vista, and formed on the parade- 
ground. The bluejacket nine was still at 
baseball practice, but the marines were at the 
far end of the field, too distant to attract par- 
ticular attention. A third battalion formed 
and stacked arms in front of the barracks. 
Presently, without so much as a bugle-note for 
warning, the two battalions formed, picked up 
their arms, and defiled out of sight, back of a 
screen of shade-trees. 

A quarter of an hour later a rumor came to 
the bluejacket ball-players that the marines 
were boarding ship. The jacky beside the 
home plate dropped his bat and ran toward the 
street, his team-mates close behind him. They 
were too late to catch even a glimpse of the 
rear-guard. The marines, just as swiftly and 
quietly as if they were on their way to Hayti, 
Santo Domingo, Vera Cruz, or Nicaragua, had 
departed. 

We all know what they did and what sub- 



264 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

sequent regiments of marines sent to the front 
has done. Their fighting in the region of 
Torcy in the German drive of last June, when 
the Teutonic shock troops got a reverse shock 
from the marines, has already become a part 
of our brightest fighting tradition. The ma- 
rines are fighters, have always been so — but 
it took their participation in this war to bring 
them prominently before the public. 

"Who and what are the marines?" was the 
question frequently asked when the commu- 
niques began to retail their exploits. Ideas 
were very hazy concerning them, and indeed, 
while we all are by this time quite familiar with 
what they can do, there are many of us even 
now who do not quite know what they are. 

Be it said, then, that the United States 
Marine Corps was authorized by the Conti- 
nental Congress on November 10, 1775, and 
therefore has the distinction of being the oldest 
military branch in the United States service. 
The corps served valiantly throughout the Rev- 
olutionary War, and was disbanded at the 
close of the war, April 11, 1782. But the corps 
was reorganized and permanently established 



DUTIES OF MARINES 265 

July 11, 1798. From that day to this, its offi- 
cers have been zealous participants in every 
expedition and action in which the navy has 
engaged, and in many trying campaigns they 
have won distinction with their brethren of the 
army. Their motto is Semper Fidelis, and ever 
have they lived up to it in war and in peace. 

The marines serve both on land and sea. 
They are trained, clothed, and equipped very 
much as are soldiers of the land forces. In 
their preliminary instruction on shore, at navy- 
yards and naval-stations, they are instructed 
and drilled in the duties of infantry soldiers, 
field-artillery men, and as machine-gun com- 
panies. In preparation for their duties as 
landing-parties from ships of the navy, for ex- 
peditionary duty, and as defenders of naval 
advance bases, they are further trained in the 
use of portable search-lights, the wireless tele- 
graph, the heliograph, and the various other 
methods of signalling. They study range-find- 
ing; erection, operation, and maintenance of 
telegraph and telephone lines; planting of land 
and submarine mines; handling of torpedoes; 
erection and demolition of bridges; building of 



266 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

roads; knotting and splicing of ropes; handling 
of heavy weights; fitting of gun-gear and the 
various methods of slinging and transporting 
ordnance, and the mounting in suitable shore 
positions of guns of 3, 5, and 6 inch caliber. 

In their service on battleships and cruisers, 
the marines form a part of the ship's comple- 
ment for battle, manning the 6-inch, 5-inch, 
3-inch, and 6-pounder guns of the intermediate 
and secondary batteries. They are trained and 
fully equipped for instant service as landing- 
parties for duty on shore. 

Great mobility and facilities for quick action 
are required of the marines, and they must be 
kept in readiness to move at a moment's notice 
and be prepared for service in any climate. 
They have seen service in Egypt, Algiers, Tripoli, 
Mexico, China, Japan, Korea, Cuba, Porto 
Rico, Panama, Nicaragua, Santo Domingo, 
Formosa, Sumatra, Hawaii, Samoa, Guam, 
Alaska, and the Philippine Islands. 

Lieutenant P. N. O'Bannon, of the Marine 
Corps, hoisted the first American flag ever 
flown over a fortress of the Old World when 
Derne, a Tripolitan stronghold, was taken by 



"SOLDIERS AND SAILORS, TOO" 267 

assault on April 27, 1805. The first regulars 
who entered the fortress of Chapultepec, in 
Mexico City, when it was taken by stqrm on 
September 13, 1847, were marines, under com- 
mand of Major Levi Twigg. Under command 
of Robert E. Lee, later commanding the Con- 
federate Army, marines captured John Brown 
at Harper's Ferry, in 1859. A battalion of 
marines under Captain John L. Broome, occu- 
pied New Orleans upon its surrender, and 
hoisted the American flag on the custom house, 
April 29, 1862. A battalion of marines, 646 
officers and men, commanded by Lieutenant- 
Colonel R. W. Huntington, was the first Ameri- 
can force that landed in Cuba in 1898, when it 
established a base for Admiral Sampson's fleet 
at Guantanamo, holding their position against 
Spanish regulars who were said to number 7,000. 
The United States Marines of the battleship 
Oregon, Captain John T. Myers commanding, 
were the first American troops to enter Peking 
just before the Boxer insurrection broke out 
in 1900. Lieutenant-Colonel Neville's marines 
were the first ashore at Vera Cruz in April, 
1914. 



268 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

It will thus be seen that the Marine Corps of 
the navy is a highly useful organization, and 
that it has played a large part in carrying our 
flag to the fore in all our wars. Until 1883 offi- 
cers in the corps were appointed from civil life. 
Beginning with that year, all vacancies were 
filled from graduates of the Naval Academy at 
Annapolis. This practice continued until 1898, 
when the increase in the corps was so rapid 
that the Academy could not furnish a sufficient 
number of officers. Since then, until 1915, 
appointments were made from civil life and by 
promotion from the ranks. In 1915 vacancies 
again began to be filled from Annapolis, but the 
entrance of our country into the war brought 
about the award of commissions on a broader 
scale. To-day, serving with the marines in 
France are a number of young officers who, a 
year or two ago, were well-known college ath- 
letes, such men as Eddie Mahan, of Harvard; 
Billy Moore, of Princeton; Harry LeGore, of 
Yale; Albert Baston, of Minnesota, and many 
other gridiron and diamond heroes, who were at- 
tracted to this branch of the service by the op- 
portunities offered for quick action. 




» s 



OFFICERS' SCHOOL 269 

There is a Marine Officers' School at Norfolk, 
to which young men appointed second lieu- 
tenants from civil life are sent for two years' 
intensive study before being assigned to regular 
duty. The course covers general subjects, and 
also all military branches, such as engineering, 
topography, gunnery, electricity, signalling, tor- 
pedo operation, and the like. In the case of col- 
lege men appointed lieutenants for war service, 
the majority had just been graduated or were 
seniors in their respective institutions ; as a con- 
sequence, little time was lost in the study of 
general subjects, the idea being to concentrate 
upon military subjects. In short, the Platts- 
burg idea was put into effect, with what re- 
sults may be judged by the words of high praise 
which have been said concerning the marine 
subalterns in France. 

Since war began the corps has grown from a 
total of 13,266 enlisted men and 426 officers to 
a present strength of 38,629 enlisted men and 
1,389 officers. The increase in enlisted men has 
been through voluntary enlistment; in one in- 
stance a college battalion enlisted as a whole. 
The personnel represents all classes of the com- 



270 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

munity: college and business men, athletes, 
mechanics, laborers, and in one instance a 
former Congressman, who, although slightly 
over the usual age, attained the rank of second 
lieutenant through his devotion to duty and 
application. 

The recruit depots at Port Royal, S. C, and 
Mare Island, Cal., have proved equal to the 
demands made upon them, and here the pre- 
liminary training of the mass of recruits has 
been accomplished. No detail of the training 
of a soldier has been neglected, and on the 
transfer of these new men to the concentration 
camp at Quantico, Va., the majority has worn 
the insignia of expert rifleman, sharpshooter, or 
marksman. Here at Quantico the men have 
completed their course of intensive training in 
the new organizations formed at that post for 
service overseas. Five regiments of infantry, 
with their attendant replacement units, have 
been organized in addition to a brigade of artil- 
lery, since the creation of this new post, in 
June, 1917. 

Besides the brigade of marines in France, it 
is necessary to maintain forces of marines in 



FAR-FLUNG SERVICE 271 

Santo Domingo, Hayti, the Virgin Islands* 
Guam, Cuba, China, the Philippines, Porto Rico, 
and Honolulu, while there is a small detach- 
ment in London. The fleet of battleships and 
cruisers absorbs a goodly percentage of the 
present force, while at the same time it has been 
necessary to supply men to augment the gar- 
risons of the navy-yards, naval ammunition 
depots, radio-stations, and other posts of the 
country. 



CHAPTER XV 

SCOPE OF THE NAVY'S WORK IN VARIOUS PARTICULARS — 

FOOD FUEL NAVAL CONSULTING BOARD PROJECTILE 

FACTORY — EXPENDITURES — INCREASE OF PERSONNEL — 
CONCLUSION 

IN the way of progress in naval construction 
or appliance, it is not the opinion of our 
naval technicians that the war from its incep- 
tion to the present time has developed any 
hitherto unknown feature. Guns and ships, to 
be sure, have increased in size, and details of 
the submarine and airplane have vastly im- 
proved these weapons of offense, but substan- 
tially no weapon hitherto known has been dis- 
credited by use in this war, and even all classes 
of war-ships built before the war have with- 
stood the test of new conditions as to their 
usefulness along the lines for which they were 
originally designed. 

Germany has not improved the submarine, 
except in detail. Undersea craft of that coun- 
try which have been recently captured show 

272 



BATTLESHIPS STILL SUPREME 273 

little deviation from the original lines of the 
submarine as used in the German Navy four 
years ago. They are larger — the new ones, 
that is — but the principle of their construction 
is fundamental, and the development not un- 
natural. 

Our modern submarine-chasers are merely a 
modified form of the torpedo-boat destroyer. 
The depth-bomb was known before it was em- 
ployed as one of the most effective weapons 
against the submarine. 

Naval authorities join in defending the big 
battleship which has come into action but 
little in the course of the war thus far. There 
is to be considered, however, the moral effect 
of Great Britain's big fleet, which has main- 
tained control of the seas for four years. Simi- 
larly our American fleet is regarded as the first 
and decisive line of defense on our shores. 

Battleships, it is true, do not figure frequently 
in the official communiques, but none the less 
they are playing their part. Battleships are 
absolutely a necessary and vital element to 
every nation at war. They constitute the last 
great line of defense, and in this war they have 



274 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

succeeded in keeping the seas practically free 
of enemy menace save under the water. 

In this final chapter may be included various 
details, facts, and figures which are necessary 
as giving further point to the enormous scope 
of the war activities of the Navy Department. 
In 1916, then, the officers and enlisted men of 
the regular navy and the Marine Corps totalled 
82,738. In March, 1918, the strength of the 
naval forces, including regular navy, marines, 
naval reserve force, national naval volunteers, 
and coast guard, was 349,997, and at this writing 
is more than 400,000. The total expenditures 
of the navy from the date of its establishment in 
1794 to 1916, inclusive, were $3,367,160,591.77, 
only about $34,000,000 in excess of the appro- 
priations real and pending since August 26, 
1916. For the specific purposes of new construc- 
tion appropriations totalling $295,000,000 have 
been made. 

On April 1, 1917, there were building 15 bat- 
tleships, 6 battle cruisers, 7 scout cruisers, 27 
destroyers, 61 submarines, 2 fuel ships, 1 supply 
ship, 1 transport, 1 gunboat, 1 hospital ship, 
and 1 ammunition ship. Since that date con- 



OTHER ACTIVITIES 27* 

tracts have been placed for 949 vessels, includ- 
ing 100 submarine-chasers for co-belligerent na- 
tions. The Board of Construction and Repair 
has also prepared in co-operation with the 
Shipping Board, a number of preliminary de- 
signs of simplified merchant vessels, varying in 
length from 400 to 800 feet. 

In June of 1917, 180 acres of land were secured 
at South Charleston, W. Va., for a projectile 
plant, which is now in operation. An armor- 
plate factory will be constructed. In one plant 
manufacturing steel forgings the output was in- 
creased 300 per cent within two months after 
government managers were installed. 

The expansion of the naval establishment 
has necessitated a great increase in facilities for 
the assembling, housing, and distribution of 
stores, and these needs have been largely met 
at Boston, Philadelphia, and Hampton Roads 
by large emergency and permanent construc- 
tions. 

In the Commissary Department the effort 
has been to see that the naval forces continue 
to be what the surgeon-general has stated they 
are: the "best fed body of men in the world." 



276 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

Sailors are no poison squad, and all efforts to 
try upon the officers and seamen of the force 
any experimental or test food have been rigor- 
ously suppressed. The high cost of living has 
been reflected in the cost of the navy ration, 
but the price has been met. There were clothing 
shortages during the early weeks of the war, 
but prompt and efficient action by the Bureau 
of Supplies and Accounts has remedied all this. 
Fuel for the navy has been handled by means 
of allotments placed with the principal operators 
in coal-producing States, the prices being fixed 
by the Fuel Administrator. The navy's stocks 
of fuel have been maintained to capacity, and 
shipments have been made to the fleet within 
the time required in all cases. Fuel oil has been 
obtained in similar manner at the prices fixed 
by the Federal Trade Commission. The Medi- 
cal Department of the navy passed quietly from 
a peace to a war footing on April 6, 1917, and 
has since continued to give adequate and satis- 
factory service. With the completion of a 
hospital ship now building, the navy will have 
four hospital ships as against one when war 
began. Prior to the war there were about 375 



RADIO-STATIONS £77 

medical officers on duty. There are to-day 
1,675 medical officers in active service, and 200 
more on reserve. Where 30 dental surgeons 
were formerly employed there are now 245. 
The number of female nurses has increased 
from 160 to 880. 

The President at the outbreak of war directed 
the Navy Department to take over such radio- 
stations as might be required for naval com- 
munications, all others being closed. Fifty- 
three commercial radio-stations were thus taken 
into the Naval Communication Service. Be- 
cause of duplications, twenty-eight of these sta- 
tions were closed. Thousands of small amateur 
radio-stations were closed. At present no radio 
communication is permitted on United States 
territory (not including Alaska), except through 
stations operated by the Navy Communication 
Department or by the War Department. 

With the need of operators apparent, a school 
for preliminary training in radio-telegraphy was 
established in each naval district, and when the 
need for a central final training-school developed, 
Harvard University offered the use of buildings, 
laboratories, and dormitories for this purpose. 



£78 OUR NAVY IN THE WAR 

The offer was accepted, and now the naval-radio 
school at Harvard is one of the largest educa- 
tional institutions in the country. There is 
another final training-school at Mare Island, 
Cal. The navy supplies the operators for the 
rapidly increasing number of war vessels, and 
has undertaken to supply radio operators for 
all merchant vessels in transatlantic service. 

At Harvard and Mare Island the radio stu- 
dents are put through four months' courses, 
which embraces not only radio-telegraphy and 
allied subjects, but military training. Some 
500,000 men have been undergoing courses at 
these two schools alone. 

When war occurred the Coast Guard was 
transferred from the Treasury Department to 
the Navy Department, and the personnel now 
consists of 227 officers and 4,683 warrant officers 
and enlisted men. 

In the work of examining and considering the 
great volume of ideas and devices and inven- 
tions submitted from the public, the Naval 
Consulting Board has rendered a signal service. 
Beginning March, 1917, the Navy Department 
was overwhelmed with correspondence so great 



CONCLUSION 279 

that it was almost impossible to sort it. Letters, 
plans, and models were received at the rate of 
from 5 to 700 a day. Within a year upward of 
60,000 letters, many including detailed plans, 
some accompanied by models, have been exam- 
ined and acted upon. To do this work a greatly 
enlarged office force in the Navy Department 
was necessary, and offices were established in 
New York and San Francisco. While a com- 
paratively small number of inventions have 
been adopted — some of them of considerable 
value — the majority has fallen into the class of 
having been already known, and either put 
into use or discarded after practical test. 

And thus the Navy Department is carrying 
on its share of the war, a share significant at 
the very outset as one of our most important 
weapons in the establishment of the causes for 
which the United States entered the great 
conflict. 



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